GenVec Receives Third-Year Funding from NIAID for HIV Vaccine Contract
October 2, 2008
GenVec, Inc. (Nasdaq:GNVC) announced today that the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), has executed its second option period (year three) under a previously announced, five-year contract with GenVec valued at up to $52 million for the production of HIV vaccines. GenVec will receive up to $3.8 million for the third year of activities. These funds will continue to support the development of new HIV vaccine candidates based on GenVec's proprietary adenovirus vector and production cell line technologies.
"We appreciate NIAID's decision to execute its renewal option under our contract. This renewal will help fund the development of new HIV vaccine candidates, which are based on multiple serotypes of adenovirus. GenVec's adenovector technology platform now includes six distinct serotypes that can be used singly or in combination," stated Dr. Rick King, GenVec's Senior Vice President of Research and Development.
GenVec and the NIAID Vaccine Research Center have partnered on HIV vaccine development for several years under a Collaborative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) utilizing GenVec's technologies. Under a separate contract, GenVec has produced adenovector-based HIV vaccines that have been tested in approximately 1,400 subjects in sixteen NIAID-sponsored Phase I and Phase II clinical trials.
About GenVec
GenVec, Inc. is a biopharmaceutical company developing novel therapeutic drugs and vaccines. GenVec's lead product candidate, TNFeradeTM, is currently in a pivotal clinical study (PACT) in locally advanced pancreatic cancer and is being evaluated in additional clinical trials in other tumor types. GenVec also uses its proprietary adenovector technology to develop vaccines for infectious diseases including foot-and-mouth disease, malaria, HIV, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), HSV-2, and influenza. Additional information about GenVec is available at www.genvec.com and in the Company's various filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Statements herein relating to future financial or business performance, conditions or strategies and other financial and business matters, including expectations regarding future revenues and operating expenses, are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act. GenVec cautions that these forward-looking statements are subject to numerous assumptions, risks and uncertainties, which change over time. Factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from the results discussed in the forward-looking statements or historical experience include risks and uncertainties, including the failure by GenVec to secure and maintain relationships with collaborators; risks relating to the early stage of GenVec's product candidates under development; uncertainties relating to clinical trials; risks relating to the commercialization, if any, of GenVec's proposed product candidates; dependence on the efforts of third parties; dependence on intellectual property; and risks that we may lack the financial resources and access to capital to fund our operations. Further information on the factors and risks that could affect GenVec's business, financial conditions and results of operations, are contained in GenVec's filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which are available at www.sec.gov. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this press release, and GenVec assumes no duty to update forward-looking statements.