IBIO NEWS: Grants Caliber License for Production of Antibodies Targeting Ebola
NEWARK, DE, Nov 10, 2014 (Marketwired via COMTEX) -- iBio, Inc. (NYSE MKT: IBIO) and Caliber Biotherapeutics LLC executed an agreement, effective today, for an emergency use license to the iBioLaunch(TM) platform for production by Caliber of antibodies that target the Ebola virus.
As previously announced on January 15 and October 16, 2014, iBio and Caliber have had an ongoing collaborative relationship reflected by a License and Collaboration Agreement dated February 14, 2013. Since early September, both iBio and Caliber have been examining how they could use their technologies and facilities to assist governments to address the Ebola epidemic.
The license announced today expands Caliber's freedom to operate under iBio's issued U.S. patents and related intellectual property to enable Caliber to assist the U.S. government by manufacturing certain experimental drugs that address the current Ebola virus outbreak, to the extent such assistance is requested. Caliber operates the largest capacity cGMP manufacturing facility in the world capable to use iBio's technology for the production of monoclonal antibodies, other biotherapeutics, and vaccines.
On October 16, the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) of the U.S. government issued a Task Order Request to three pre-existing BARDA contractors, public-private consortia referred to as Centers for Innovation in Advanced Development and Manufacturing, for the procurement of a specified experimental Ebola therapeutic known as ZMapp(TM) made in Nicotiana plants. The submission deadline is November 10. None of the three consortia appears to have a plant-made pharmaceutical (PMP) technology or facility to produce significant quantities of the ZMapp experimental product in plants, so it is expected that the consortia interested to be involved will contract with PMP-capable parties in order to satisfy BARDA's requirements.
In addition to the Ebola-related activities, iBio and Caliber also are collaborating on commercial opportunities for recombinant antibodies and antibody-related proteins that can benefit from the speed, efficiency, and cost advantages of producing pharmaceutical proteins in plants instead of with bioreactor-based manufacturing methods such as those which use Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells. According to peer-reviewed, published scientific data, recombinant antibodies produced in plants can provide significant efficacy advantages over similar antibodies produced in CHO cells. The companies are evaluating both proprietary and biosimilar products for a variety of markets.