VaxGen was a

biopharmaceutical A biopharmaceutical, also known as a biological medical product, or biologic, is any pharmaceutical drug product manufactured in, extracted from, or semisynthesized from biological sources. Different from totally synthesized pharmaceuticals, t ...

company based in the

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Go ...

. Founded in 1995 and based in South San Francisco, California, the company was engaged in the development of vaccines that immunize against infectious disease, notably AIDS. On July 28, 2010, VaxGen Inc. was acquired by diaDexus, Inc. in a reverse merger transaction.; diaDexus filed for bankruptcy in 2016. VaxGen, Inc. does not have significant operations.

AIDSVAX

In the 1990s, VaxGen developed and began trials of an AIDS

vaccine A vaccine is a biological preparation that provides active acquired immunity to a particular infectious or malignant disease. The safety and effectiveness of vaccines has been widely studied and verified.

called AIDSVAX. The

National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID, ) is one of the 27 institutes and centers that make up the National Institutes of Health (NIH), an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). NIAID's ...

(NIAID) worked with Vaxgen when Vaxgen was developing its AIDS vaccine. Specifically, NIAID and Vaxgen worked together on research projects related to the body's

immune response An immune response is a reaction which occurs within an organism for the purpose of defending against foreign invaders. These invaders include a wide variety of different microorganisms including viruses, bacteria, parasites, and fungi which could ...

to the vaccine. As of 1998, according to NIAID, "The three-year study f AIDSVAXis the first large-scale trial of an HIV preventive vaccine, and will involve 5,000 volunteers at about 40 clinical sites in North America." Dr. Anthony Fauci said, "The effort to develop a safe and effective vaccine against HIV/AIDS is a global imperative and the highest priority of the NIH AIDS research program." However, in 2003, it was announced that the preliminary trials of the vaccine, conducted in

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is b ...

and North America, had been unsuccessful. The company's analysis of its results, which resulted in some potentially positive outcomes among patient subgroups, was criticized by statisticians as inappropriate.

Anthrax vaccine

Vaxgen had focused its recent efforts on a new form of Anthrax Vaccine, for which it was awarded a $877 million contract to provide the vaccine under the

Project Bioshield Act The Project Bioshield Act was an act passed by the United States Congress in 2004 calling for $5 billion for purchasing vaccines that would be used in the event of a bioterrorist attack. This was a ten-year program to acquire medical countermeas ...

. In December 2006, HHS unilaterally withdrew the $877 million contract, sending the stock tumbling as low as $1.20 per share.

References

External links

Historically was http://www.VaxGen.com. This URL is no longer for the Vaxgen, Inc. in this article. Pharmaceutical companies of the United States Health care companies based in California Insolvent companies {{Med-company-stub