Green plant-based production to boost Brazilian biologics

19-Jan-2011 - Last updated on 19-Jan-2011 at 12:05 GMT

Related tags Vaccine

Bio-Manguinhos has licensed green plant-based vaccine production technology to position Brazil at the forefront of biologics manufacture.

Using technology from iBio, Bio-Manguinhos, a unit of Fiocruz, the central agency of the Brazilian Ministry of Health, will develop and manufacture a yellow fever vaccine. iBio, Bio-Manguinhos and Fraunhofer USA Center for Molecular Biotechnology (FCMB) are collaborating on the project.

Bio-Manguinhos currently produces yellow fever vaccine in eggs and exports the product to 70 countries. Adopting the new technology “will significantly help to protect a broader audience”, said Vidadi Yusibov, chief scientific officer of iBio, and boost production capabilities in Brazil.

“We believe iBio’s technology and FCMB’s experience and skills in the field, combined with our own capabilities and relationships, can make Brazil a leader in high technologies and advanced manufacturing processes for biopharmaceuticals”, said Artur Roberto Couto, director of Fiocruz.

Bio-Manguinhos is investing more than $6m (€4.5m) to take the yellow fever vaccine through Phase I trials. Development of the vaccine is being performed through collaboration between iBio, FCMB and Bio-Manguinhos. FCMB has collaborated with iBio on other development projects.

iBio has granted a commercial, royalty bearing license to Bio-Manguinhos to develop, manufacture a sell certain vaccines, the first of which is for yellow fever, based on its iBioLaunch technology.

The license covers Latin America, the Caribbean and Africa. iBio retains the right to sell products developed through the collaboration in other territories. If this happens Bio-Manguinhos will receive royalties.

Amex listing

On January 4 iBio began trading on the NYSE Amex exchange. Listing on the exchange “should significantly enhance iBio’s visibility, liquidity and suitability for a more extensive investment audience”, said Robert Kay, chairman and CEO of iBio.

Shares of iBio soared in value following news of the licensing deal with Bio-Manguinhos, closing the day up 19 per cent at $5.85. This continued the upwards trend experience by iBio since it began trading.