Founder Don Francis | Founded 1995 | |
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Headquarters South San Francisco, California, United States | ||
VaxGen was a biopharmaceutical company based in the San Francisco Bay Area.
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On July 28, 2010, VaxGen Inc. was acquired by diaDexus, Inc., in a reverse merger transaction. VaxGen, Inc. does not have significant operations. The company seeks to enter into a strategic transaction or series of strategic transactions. Previously, it was engaged in the development of vaccines that immunize against infectious disease. The company was founded in 1995 and was based in South San Francisco, California.
AIDSVAX
In the 1990s VaxGen developed, and began trials of, an AIDS vaccine called AIDSVAX. The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) worked with Vaxgen when Vaxgen was developing its AIDS vaccine. Specifically, NIAID and Vaxgen worked together on research projects related to the body's immune response to the vaccine. As of 1998, according to NIAID, "The three-year study [of AIDSVAX] is the first large-scale trial of an HIV preventive vaccine and will involve 5,000 volunteers at about 40 clinical sites in North America."
However, in 2003 it was announced that the preliminary trials of the vaccine, conducted in Thailand and Indianapolis, Indiana had been unsuccessful.
Anthrax vaccine
Vaxgen had focused its recent efforts on a new form of Anthrax Vaccine, for which it was awarded a $877 million contract to provide the vaccine under the Project Bioshield Act. In December 2006, HHS unilaterally withdrew the $877 million contract, sending the stock tumbling as low as $1.20 per share.