Acambis completes delivery of 500,000 doses of MVA3000 smallpox vaccine to US Government

12-06-2005: Acambis plc announced that it has completed the delivery under contract terms of 500,000 doses of its investigational MVA attenuated smallpox vaccine, MVA3000, to the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases ("NIAID"), part of the US National Institutes of Health. The delivery fulfils a core requirement of the contract that was awarded to Acambis by the NIAID in September 2004 for the manufacture and development of an MVA vaccine.

Acambis is co-developing MVA3000 with Baxter Healthcare SA ("Baxter"), which produced the 500,000 doses at its facilities and provides process development and manufacturing services.

In August, the Department of Health and Human Services issued a Request for Proposals (RFP) for the manufacture of up to 20 million doses of MVA attenuated smallpox vaccine and advanced clinical testing up to and including obtaining a product license for MVA. It also included options for the purchase of up to 60 million additional doses of MVA and "warm-base" manufacturing over the longer term. Acambis submitted a proposal in response to the RFP in October and the US Government has indicated that contract award(s) will be made in February 2006.