Emergent BioSystems Surprises With Purchase

We’ve reported before that Our Fair City of Rockville is a hub of biotechnology activity — >especially applications relating to homeland security.

Over the weekend, a local company, Emergent BioSolutions, surprised industry watchers by purchasing the rights to a competitor’s anthrax vaccine, according to TechJournal South:

Emergent BioSolutions paid VaxGen $2 million upon execution of the definitive agreement and may be obligated to pay up to an additional $8 million in milestone payments, plus specified percentages of future net sales.

Emergent already has a vaccine in place, but it reportedly takes up to 18 months for an individual to go through its full course. The two companies had been bitter rivals and were competing to win a contract from the Federal government to provide anthrax vaccines. VaxGen’s product had fallen on hard times and Emergent picked it up at what appear to be a fire sale price.

Emergent’s chief competitor in this effort is now an Annapolis firm, PharmaThene, which would be distributing British firm Avecia Biologic’s product, according to the Washington Post.

Emergent argues that, especially for homeland security applications, domestic sourcing is preferable.

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