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news.DOR BioPharma is to collaborate with Dowpharma, to advance the development of DOR's oral botulism vaccine. The vaccine, BT-VACC, is designed to protect against exposure to botulinum toxin, which is one of five "Category A" bioterrorism threats identified by the US government.
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Under the agreement, Dowpharma will use its pfenex expression technology to speed the development process of the vaccine.
Oral administration of BT-VACC produces protective antibodies that afford protection or prolonged survival of treated animals against 30,000 times the lethal dose of botulinum toxin serotype A.
The oral route of administration of a vaccine is believed to be preferable to the injectable form due to benefits derived from safer and easier administration, lack of skilled medical personnel needed for administration, and relative ease of distribution to the civilian population. DOR believes that it is the only company developing an orally delivered botulinum toxin vaccine.
“This is an important relationship for us as we continue to develop BT-VACC,” commented Michael Sember, president and CEO of DOR BioPharma. “Results to date indicate that BT-VACC has the ability to induce protective antibodies in appropriate animal models. With Dowpharma’s pfenex expression technology, we intend to expedite the production of multiple botulinum toxin serotype antigens… so that we can rapidly advance BT-VACC into the clinic.”