Vijay Samant

In the public’s eye, human vaccine developer Vical Inc. might seem to be undergoing an identity crisis. The company was first submersed in the avian flu frenzy last year and is now being bombarded with phone calls about drugs to prevent dog cancer.

But, make no mistake, Chief Executive Officer Vijay Samant said Vical is focused on battling human infectious diseases.

The company, which employs 150 locally, received phone calls from pet owners recently asking for a dog vaccine that Merial Ltd. had developed using Vical’s technology.

The problem, Samant said, is that Merial, not Vical, will market the vaccine.

Federal regulators approved the vaccine last week, and a news release that said Vical would receive a $200,000 milestone payment resulted in a flurry of inquiries.

National publications such as Business Week planned to interview Vical about the treatment, Samant said.

Vical has a plentiful pipeline, including two vaccines in late phase trials, one to treat skin cancer and one medicine for artery blockages.

But, ironically, the vaccines for which Vical has received the most attention are the canine vaccine, which it did not develop, and its avian flu vaccine, Vaxfectin, only now entering human clinical trials.

Amid fears that the dreaded H5N1 bird flu would infect humans, the U.S. National Institutes of Health last year awarded Vical, along with a handful of other companies, millions of dollars in grants to battle the virus.

Vaccines Are Sexy

“All of a sudden, vaccines are sexy,” Samant said. “People are starting to realize how important vaccines are as new (threats) arise.”

The same technology is behind Vical’s 15 compounds in development.

In addition to Merial, organizations that have licensed Vical’s vaccine development technology for use in their own research and development include Merck & Co., MIT, Novartis, Sanofi-Aventis, as well as Harvard and Stanford universities.