Emergent buys Trubion for up to $135M

Emergent BioSolutions is buying Trubion Pharmaceuticals for $96.8 million up front and up to $38.7 million of success-based milestones. Emergent gains Trubion's two clinical-stage product candidates for oncology and autoimmunity. The company also gains Trubion's two platforms--Small Modular Immunopharmaceutic (SMIPTM) and SCORPIONTM technologies--which could help develop additional drugs. Emergent will maintain research facilities in Seattle, WA, where Trubion is currently...

Emergent looks to move beyond defense work

Emergent BioSolutions, the maker of the only FDA-approved anthrax vaccine, is planning to renovate a 55,000-square-foot facility in Rockville, MD. Kyle Keese, senior vice president for manufacturing operations, tells the Washington Post that the company is planning to look beyond defense work into other areas of the drug business. Now that Emergent is the leader in anthrax vaccines, "we can start to move outside the biodefense realm and into more commercial segments." Emergent is...

PharmAthene wins ruling in fight over $78M anthrax contract

PharmAthene announced that it won a brawl with rival Emergent BioSolutions, obtaining a ruling from the Government Accountability Office that allows the developer to keep a $78 million contract to develop a second-generation anthrax vaccine. Emergent had claimed that PharmAthene had landed the contract in a sole source deal that should have been opened to bidders. Emergent makes BioThrax, the currently available anthrax vaccine, and sells it to government agencies. "While development activities...