Soligenix, a late-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing and commercializing products to treat rare diseases, announced that the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), has exercised an option to fund GMP (good manufacturing practices) compliant RiVax bulk drug substance and finished drug product manufacturing, which is required for the conduct of future preclinical and clinical safety and efficacy studies. The overall objectives of the contract are to advance the development of Soligenix's thermostabilization technology, ThermoVax, in combination with the company's ricin toxin vaccine, RiVax, as a medical countermeasure to prevent the effects of ricin exposure.

The exercised option for contract #HHSN272201400039C will provide Soligenix with approximately $2.5 million in additional non-dilutive funding, bringing the total amount awarded to date under this contract to $21.2 million. If all contract options are exercised, the total award of up to $24.7 million will support the preclinical, manufacturing and clinical development activities necessary to advance heat stable RiVax with the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

"The exercise of this option demonstrates the positive and productive collaboration between NIAID and the Soligenix team," stated Christopher J. Schaber, PhD, president and chief executive officer of Soligenix. "With this recent option exercise by NIAID, along with the one exercised this past June, we now have approximately $4.5 million in additional non-dilutive funding that will allow us to proceed with both GMP manufacture and preclinical efficacy studies.  We look forward to accelerating this important work with NIAID and engaging the FDA to advance the RiVax program. We thank the NIAID team for their continued support and contribution to the Soligenix development programme."