Long thought of as a ‘bio-defence’ specialist, Acambis has five other major treatments in clinical stages for a range of infections, with a number expected to make progress in the coming year.

Although not so long ago vaccination was viewed as having become a commoditised market, it has come into vogue, with the major drug companies seeing benefit from prevention as well as cure. Cambridge-based Acambis, whose R&D facility aims to produce one new candidate a year, has already supplied 192.5m doses of its smallpox vaccine to the US government, which is soon expected to award the company a ten-year manufacturing contract in the region of $30m (£15m) a year.

Despite investor scepticism about whether the contract will come, chief executive Ian Garland says the deal will be ‘finalised this quarter’. The smallpox contract is not the be-all and end-all for the company, but its delay seems to have weighed on the share price.

The group’s next most advanced therapies are for tropical diseases – Japanese encephalitis, dengue fever and West Nile virus – and are all partnered with the vaccines arm of European pharma behemoth Sanofi. The first has passed Phase III trials and should generate revenues in 2010; the dengue treatment will be taken by Sanofi into Phase III this year with 'modest milestones but significant potential'; and West Nile will be worth $75m to Acambis in milestone payments and is on track to report Phase II results this year.

Further down the pipeline could be even more excitement, with two ‘potential blockbusters’ for hospital superbug C. Difficile and influenza. Garland says Acambis is 'probably in the lead’ for a universal flu vaccine, for which it seeks a partner.

Acambis shares have surrendered two-thirds of their value since 2003 but should receive a major boost if the smallpox deal materialises. With Goldman Sachs targeting a 226p price, the shares are not to be sold.

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