PharmAthene shares fall on bid requirement

Shares of PharmAthene Inc. fell Thursday after the federal Department of Health and Human Services asked companies bidding on a government contract for anthrax vaccines to submit a regulatory strategy plan to the Food and Drug Administration.

Shares of Annapolis, Md.-based PharmAthene, which develops the SparVax anthrax vaccine, fell 16 cents, or 5.9 percent, to $2.55 in afternoon trading.

In a regulatory filing, PharmAthene said HHS asked bidders to submit a comprehensive regulatory plan with the FDA within 15 days. HHS did not provide information with respect to the nature of the review by the FDA, the company said.

"There can be no assurance that DHHS will not again extend the timeline for issuing an award, add other requirements, or that the company will be awarded a contract under that solicitation," PharmAthene said, in the filing.

The request dragged down other anthrax vaccine developers, even though they are already supplying their products to the federal government under contracts.

Shares of Rockville, Md.-based Emergent BioSolutions Inc. fell $1.38, or 11 percent, to $10.90. That company makes Biothrax, which is the only Food and Drug Administration-licensed vaccine for the prevention of anthrax. That drug is already included in the Strategic National Stockpile.

The stockpile is a U.S. government reserve of medicines in the event of a public health emergency, such as a terrorist attack or flu outbreak.

Human Genome Sciences Inc., also based in Rockville, also supplies doses of its ABthrax vaccine to the stockpile. The company is permitted to deliver the drug to the stockpile even though it does not yet have FDA approval. The company's stock was unchanged at $1.41 in Thursday afternoon trading.