The Department of Health and Human Services has awarded Elusys Therapeutics a contract worth up to $143 million for the development of a new anthrax therapy dubbed Anthim. The contract, which could run for up to five years, starts out with a $16.8 million payment in the first year. Analysts note that Elusys' new anthrax therapy could compete with Human Genome Sciences' raxibacumab. The FDA recently declined to approve HGS' anthrax treatment, noting some outstanding questions the agency has about raxibacumab's effectiveness compared with already marketed drugs.
- read the report from the Washington Business Journal