Trying to Get Ahead of the Herd

Biotech Has Senator's Support to Do Drug Research at USDA Site

In the race to build a national defense against chemical and biological weapons, Annapolis-based PharmAthene is putting its money on an unlikely horse.

Or goat, actually, one with unique properties to enable researchers' development of a drug that would foil the neurological effects of chemical weapons. PharmAthene has a herd of 200 of the animals at its research facility in Canada. Now it wants to add another, at the USDA's Beltsville Agricultural Research Center in Prince George's County.

PharmAthene is one of several biotech companies vying to develop drugs under Project Bioshield, the federal government's $5.6 billion initiative to accelerate the creation of drugs and vaccines to combat the effects of biological and chemical weapons. The effort was launched after anthrax attacks in 2001 killed five and sickened dozens.

Because there is no other market for these products besides the government, the expense of developing them can be significant for companies, which often depend on federal grants and congressional appropriations to subsidize their work.

PharmAthene has found an ally in Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin (D-Md.) for its plans to expand its goat herd. A House-Senate conference committee this week could consider a measure Cardin inserted in the federal farm bill that would permit the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center to lease space to a nongovernmental agency.

PharmAthene's development of a drug to neutralize the effects of chemical weapons would stimulate other scientific work at the Beltsville center, according to Cardin.

"We think that PharmAthene and BARC can be great partners together and we are working hard to bring this public-private partnership to fruition," Cardin said.

Using goats it has genetically modified to produce a particular human protein, which PharmAthene harvests from the goats' milk and serves as the foundation for the drug. PharmAthene has spent the past three years formulating the drug, Protexia, that would absorb and detoxify nerve agents before they cause neurological damage. The drug would be given to troops before they go to battle and could be used as a treatment after exposure.

John Troyer, senior program director for PharmAthene's Protexia project, said the company has not received a government contract to produce an initial batch of doses. But the company is working on efficacy studies of the product and has received interest from some foreign governments. PharmAthene needs to expand so it can produce more animals for a number of studies, Troyer said.

A key question is how to neutralize VX nerve gas, for example, which can linger on surfaces for a long time and be picked up if people touch it, Troyer said.

"It can be absorbed into the skin, and they won't know they're sick for hours or even days. So we're looking at how effective is Protexia at treating individuals if they've gotten nerve gas or [chemical] exposure."

Development of drugs like Protexia is part of a three-pronged federal approach to bolstering the nation's strategic stockpile of medicine and medical supplies. Project Bioshield calls for the government to amass vaccines and other preventive remedies, stockpile treatments for people who have been exposed, and produce medicines to combat the natural toxins released by anthrax and other biological agents.