Computer Sciences Corporation's DVC Enters Clinical Trial For Plague Vaccine Candidate
EL SEGUNDO, Calif., Jan. 10 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Computer Sciences Corporation today announced that DVC LLC, a CSC company, has entered into a phase 1 clinical trial for its recombinant plague vaccine candidate.
The trial will evaluate the safety, tolerability and immunogenicity of the vaccine candidate in healthy volunteers between the ages of 18 and 40. Testing is underway and will continue into 2005 at the University of Kentucky Chandler Medical Center in Lexington, Ky. Contract research services for the single center open-label study will be provided by the Covalent Group Inc. , headquartered in Wayne, Penn.
The plague vaccine candidate is designed to provide protection against the plague bacterium Yersinia pestis, and was originally identified and developed by scientists working at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID). Their work involved the identification of suitable protein antigens and the development of the processes used to assess the performance of the vaccine. Further development and manufacture of the vaccine candidate has been achieved by ID Biomedical Corporation , headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia, under the DVC prime systems contract for the Department of Defense Joint Vaccine Acquisition Program (JVAP).
JVAP's mission is to develop, produce and stockpile FDA-licensed vaccine products to help protect the warfighter against biological warfare agents. JVAP consolidates the Department of Defense's efforts for the advanced development, testing, FDA licensing, production and storage of biological defense vaccines.
USAMRIID, located at Fort Detrick, Md., is the lead medical research laboratory for the U.S. Biological Defense Research Program, and plays a key role in national defense and in infectious disease research. The Institute's mission is to conduct basic and applied research on biological threats resulting in medical solutions (such as vaccines, drugs and diagnostics) to protect the warfighter. USAMRIID is a subordinate laboratory of the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command.
DVC is a biopharmaceutical company dedicated to the development and licensure of safe and efficacious biodefense vaccines and therapeutics. DVC is part of CSC's Enforcement, Security and Intelligence organization, which CSC created in 2002 to support programs enhancing U.S. security.
The safety and efficacy of this product in humans has not been established. This product is currently under clinical investigation and has not been licensed by the FDA.
About CSC
Founded in 1959, Computer Sciences Corporation is a leading global information technology (IT) services company. CSC's mission is to provide customers in industry and government with solutions crafted to meet their specific challenges and enable them to profit from the advanced use of technology.
With approximately 91,000 employees, CSC provides innovative solutions for customers around the world by applying leading technologies and CSC's own advanced capabilities. These include systems design and integration; IT and business process outsourcing; applications software development; Web and application hosting; and management consulting. Headquartered in El Segundo, Calif., CSC reported revenue of $15.3 billion for the 12 months ended Oct. 1, 2004. For more information, visit the company's Web site at http://www.csc.com/.
Computer Sciences CorporationCONTACT: April Finnen, Public Relations of DVC LLC, +1-301-607-5004,afinnen@csc.com; or Rich Venn, Media Relations, Corporate of Computer SciencesCorporation, +1-310-615-3926, rvenn@csc.com
Web site: http://www.csc.com/