AVANT Immunotherapeutics, a biotech firm based in Needham, Massachusetts, has been awarded a contract to develop something the Defense Department has long sought: an oral vaccine that protects against both anthrax and plague in a single dose. The subcontract, worth more than $8 million over two years, marks a significant shift in how the military approaches protection against biological threats. Instead of multiple injections requiring complicated dosing schedules, soldiers could eventually swallow a single vaccine offering defense against two of the most dangerous bacterial agents known as potential bioweapons.
Current vaccines against anthrax and plague come with real limitations. They require soldiers to receive multiple doses over an extended period, and each vaccine protects against only one pathogen, meaning two separate regimens are necessary. The Defense Department has been searching for a better approach—one that is faster to administer, more effective, and can protect against multiple agents at once. This contract represents one of the first major Pentagon investments in applying modern biotechnology to solve this problem.
AVANT will develop the vaccine using its proprietary modified live vaccine technology, which uses genetically modified bacteria as vectors—essentially biological "buses"—to carry plague and anthrax antigens directly to the immune system. This approach is designed to trigger protective immunity quickly against both Bacillus anthracis, the bacterium that causes anthrax, and Yersinia pestis, which causes plague. The company plans to conduct research at laboratories in both Needham and St. Louis, Missouri over the two-year development period, which will focus on vaccine development through preclinical testing.
The work will be executed as a subcontract with DynPort Vaccine Company LLC, the prime contractor for the Defense Department's Joint Vaccine Acquisition Program based at Fort Detrick, Maryland. DVC is already developing seven vaccines for the military and has been at the forefront of the Pentagon's biodefense vaccine strategy. Terry Irgens, DVC's president, emphasized the practical advantage of an oral approach: oral administration would make it far easier to vaccinate large numbers of soldiers quickly compared to injectable vaccines.
Una Ryan, AVANT's president and CEO, called the award a recognition of the company's vaccine technologies and their potential to meet a critical national security need. For AVANT specifically, the contract provides what she termed "non-dilutive funding"—money that advances the company's research without diluting existing investors' ownership stakes—and gives the company cash reserves for over two years of operations. The timing was particularly notable given the context of the 2001 anthrax attacks, which had underscored the vulnerability of military personnel and civilians to biological threats and sparked renewed urgency around biodefense vaccine development.
Senator Edward Kennedy, then ranking Democrat on the Senate Committee on Health, praised the award as proof that the Defense Department was pursuing the next generation of biodefense vaccines. Senator John Kerry similarly highlighted how the contract demonstrated that American small businesses could innovate to protect troops facing evolving biological threats. Both senators had supported funding for the Joint Vaccine Acquisition Program, recognizing that such advanced vaccine development requires sustained investment and commitment.
The vaccine remains years away from protecting any soldiers, but the contract signals a strategic shift toward simpler, more effective protection against biological threats that remain a genuine concern for military planners.