Having been acquired by Oxigene in 2009, in July 2010, Vaxgen acquired diaDexus in a reverse merger and effectively ceased operations. Spun out of Genentech and orginally known as Genenvax Inc., VaxGen, Inc. had been a biopharmaceutical company engaged in the development, of biologic products for the prevention and treatment specifically vaccines against anthrax, smallpox and HIV/AIDS . Earlier the firm had been the single-largest shareholder in Celltrion Inc., a joint venture formed to build biopharmaceutical manufacturing operations to produce complex proteins made through mammalian-cell fermentation. In the 1990s VaxGen developed, and began trials of, an AIDS vaccine in collbaoration with National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) investigation the body's immune response to the vaccine. In 2003 it was announced that the preliminary trials of the vaccine, conducted in Thailand and Indianapolis, IN had been unsuccessful. Vaxgen shifted focus to a new form of Anthrax Vaccine with a large contract from the Project Bioshiled Act to provide the vaccine under the Project Bioshield Act.That contract was subsequently withdrawn
