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Director's interest in shares

Cambridge, UK and Cambridge, Massachusetts - 19 June 2008 - Acambis plc (Acambis) (LSE: ACM) announces that, on 18 June 2008, a grant of 3,730 options under the Acambis 2008 US Employee Stock Purchase Plan  was made to Dr Michael Watson.

    

The share options were granted over ordinary 10p shares at an exercise price of 99p per share. The exercise date applicable is 19 June 2009. No amount was payable by the Director on the grant of these share options.

The total number of shares over which Dr Watson holds options or deferred shares is 632,655.

-ends-

Enquiries

Acambis plc

Ian Garland, Chief Executive Officer

Elizabeth Jones, Chief Financial Officer

Lyndsay Wright, VP, Communications and IR

Tel: +44 (0) 1223 275 300

Brunswick
Jon Coles / Justine McIlroy / Annabel Entress
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7404 5959

About Acambis

Acambis is a leading vaccine company developing novel vaccines that address significant unmet medical needs or substantially improve standards of care. ChimeriVax™-JE, Acambis' most advanced product in its development-stage pipeline, has to date shown an excellent safety and efficacy profile following pivotal Phase 3 trials. It is currently undergoing paediatric trials in the endemic region and is partnered with Sanofi Pasteur. Acambis' proprietary ChimeriVax™ technology, developed in association with St Louis University, has also been used to develop ChimeriVax™-West Nile, which is undergoing Phase 2 clinical testing, making it the most advanced investigational vaccine against the West Nile virus. Acambis has established a global collaboration with Sanofi Pasteur for further development and commercialisation of the vaccine. ChimeriVax™ has also been applied to development of Sanofi Pasteur's tetravalent dengue vaccine, which has successfully demonstrated proof-of-concept in a Phase 2 trial by generating 100% seroconversion to all four dengue virus serotypes. 

Acambis' ACAM-CDIFF™ is the only vaccine in development against Clostridium difficile bacteria, a leading cause of hospital-acquired infections. C. difficile is estimated to cause at least 360,000 cases of C. difficile-associated disease in the US alone, and annual costs to US and European healthcare systems are estimated to be in excess of $7bn a year. Acambis' influenza programme aims to develop a universal vaccine against influenza, for which a universal 'A' strain vaccine, ACAM-FLU-A™, was recently tested in a Phase 1 trial and pre-clinical challenge study. Acambis is currently undertaking pre-clinical testing of a vaccine candidate, dl5-29, against genital herpes.

Acambis is recognised internationally as the leading producer of smallpox vaccines for emergency-use stockpiles held by the US Government and several other governments around the world. Acambis developed its ACAM2000™ smallpox vaccine under contracts with the US Government.

Acambis is based in Cambridge, UK and Cambridge, Massachusetts, US, and is listed on the London Stock Exchange (ACM). More information is available at www.acambis.com. 

  'Safe Harbour' statement

Statements contained within this news release may contain forward-looking comments, which involve risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to vary from those contained in the forward-looking statements. In some cases, you can identify such forward-looking statements by terminology such as 'may', 'will', 'could', 'forecasts', 'expects', 'plans', 'anticipates', 'believes', 'estimates', 'predicts', 'potential', or 'continue'. Predictions and forward-looking references in this news release are subject to the satisfactory progress of research which is, by its very nature, unpredictable. Forward projections reflect management's best estimates based on information available at the time of issue.

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