Newlink Genetics Receives $18 Million to Upscale Its Research On Potential Ebola Vaccine

NewLink Genetics has received a multimillion dollar award for the second time in two weeks to support its research on an Ebola vaccine.

The Ames-based pharmaceutical company announced that it has received an $18 million contract from the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA).

BARDA is a division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The same agency awarded NewLink an initial $30 million contract in December to push forward research of the Ebola vaccine, known as rVSV-ZEBOV. The most recent award is an extension of that initial funding.

NewLink, which focuses on developing therapies to fight cancer, has licensed research, development and manufacturing of the vaccine to Merck & Co., a much larger pharmaceutical company.

Last week, NewLink received an additional $8.1 million from a separate federal agency to support its vaccine research. The Public Health Agency of Canada first developed the Ebola vaccine before licensing it to a NewLink subsidiary.

Source: Medindia