Coley Pharmaceutical Group announced that the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has awarded $6MM to Coley to support the development of Coley's CpG immunostimulatory oligonucleotides (oligos) to enhance anthrax vaccines.

"This contract builds on our preclinical data showing that CpG oligos protect mice against a broad range of pathogens, including anthrax, as well as our human clinical data showing enhancement of the Engerix-B Hepatitis B vaccine when combined with our immunostimulatory oligos," said Robert L. Bratzler, Coley President and Chief Executive Officer. "The DARPA contract and other development agreements with our partners, including Aventis and GlaxoSmithKline, give Coley the opportunity to realize the full potential of its immunostimulatory oligos to prevent or treat a broad range of diseases."

The current anthrax vaccine requires six doses and 18 months to produce immunity. Coley's CpG oligos, used together with vaccines, have the potential to reduce the number of vaccine doses, induce protective antibody levels more quickly, produce higher affinity antibodies directed against a broader range of anthrax antigens, and to improve duration of protection.

This research at Coley stems from a grant awarded in 1999 to Arthur Krieg, then a professor of Internal Medicine at the University of Iowa, a Coley founder and currently the company's Chief Scientific Officer. Commenting on this new contract, Dr. Krieg said, "I am delighted that our progress since we began this program in 1999 has been so rapid, and that DARPA has selected this program to transition from the preclinical phase to the clinical phase as a high priority."