Cobra signs agreement with US Naval Medical Research Center to evaluate Cobra's oral vaccine delivery platform

Keele, UK, 16th October 2006 – UK based Cobra Biomanufacturing Plc (AIM: CBF) has signed a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with the Naval Medical Research Center of the US Navy to construct and test a vaccine against malaria using Cobra’s proprietary ORT-VAC oral vaccine delivery technology. Malaria affects about 300-500 million people per year and is responsible for about 2.7 million deaths annually. It is a parasitic disease that is transmitted by mosquitoes. As with tuberculosis, the number one killer ahead of malaria, the emergence of drug resistant strains is a major problem, as is the emergence of insecticide resistant strains of mosquitoes.

Cobra is already in the course of evaluating the ORT-VAC platform in the development of a vaccine against anthrax and plague with UK Defence Science and Technology Laboratory, Porton Down. Similar technology will be used for this collaboration with the US Navy. Financial terms were not disclosed.

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For further information:

Cobra Biomanufacturing Plc

Tel: 44 (0) 1782 714 181

David Thatcher, Chief Executive

Northbank Communications

Tel: 44 (0) 203 008 7555

Gemma Bradley

Buchanan Communications

Tel: 44 (0) 207 466 5000

Tim Anderson/Mark Court/Rebecca Dietrich


Notes to Editors:

About Cobra Biomanufacturing Plc:

Cobra Biomanufacturing Plc is a leading international manufacturer of biopharmaceuticals to the lifescience industry. Founded in 1992, Cobra provides innovative manufacturing solutions to the biopharmaceutical industry covering DNA, virus, cellular therapeutics and recombinant protein products. Cobra was the first company to develop GMP (Good Manufacturing Practice) standard DNA manufacture in Europe, with specific expertise in DNA medicines.

A range of unique, patented technologies, underpins this revenue generating business.

Cobra floated on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange in June 2002 raising £7 million and raised a further £5.2 million in May 2003 in order to further expand capacity in Oxford UK.

www.cobrabio.com 

About ORT-VAC:

ORT-VAC is a system for oral delivery of a vaccine that exploits the use of live bacteria that have been attenuated so they do not cause disease. The ORT-VAC strains are uniquely able to stably maintain hundreds of copies of circular DNA molecules called plasmids, which contain gene coding for the active principle of vaccines called antigens. The efficacy of DNA vaccines depend on getting as much of the antigen gene as possible to appropriate cells of the immune system in order to provoke an immune response – a task that ORT-VAC strains are ideally suited to perform. There is a significant advantage in replacing needles with an oral vaccine pill for improved safety and easy of delivery, particularly in developing countries where vaccination programmes are difficult to coordinate.

About US Navy Medical Research Center (NMRC):

The Naval Medical Research Center is a branch of the U.S. Navy. NMRC is focusing on finding solutions both to conventional medical problems on the battlefield, such as bleeding, and to non-conventional weapons, such as thermobaric blast, biological agents, or radiation. Research is being conducted in the fields of Infectious Diseases, Biological Warfare Defense, Dental Research, and Combat Casualty Care. NMRC is an international leader in malaria research and serves as a premier center for malaria vaccine development.