NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwired - November 21, 2016) - iBio, Inc. (NYSE MKT: IBIO), a leading provider of plant-based biotechnology for developing and manufacturing biological products, announced the issue of a new Canadian patent in the company’s iBioModulator™ thermostable immunomodulator protein portfolio. The new patent, serial number 2692933, is entitled “Yersinia Pestis Antigens, Vaccine Compositions and Related Methods” and issued October 18, 2016. The patent includes claims covering plague antigens fused to the Company’s iBioModulator™ thermostable immunomodulator, as well as vaccine compositions and a method for producing the antigen.
The new Canadian patent joins iBio’s other patents in the Plague Vaccine family in the US (8,404,252, 8,945,580), and also in international markets of interest to iBio and its clients, including Germany, France, Ireland, and United Kingdom. Plague is considered a potential bioterrorism weapon.
“This is an important extension of intellectual property protection for our commercial technology platform,” said Wayne Fitzmaurice, Ph.D., iBio’s Vice President, Intellectual Property. “Use of our technology for the development and production of superior Plague vaccines should enable governments to better protect their citizens from the threat of weaponized plague. The broader iBioModulator patent family comprises seven US patents and multiple foreign patents. We see numerous applications of the iBioModulator technology for both therapeutic and preventive vaccines.”
There is no plague vaccine currently approved for use in the U.S. Although killed whole-cell plague vaccines have been reported to protect against bubonic plague in animal models, such vaccines were not effective against pneumonic plague. By contrast, data previously published in the peer-reviewed scientific journal, Vaccine, demonstrated that a recombinant plague vaccine incorporating the iBioModulator protein, and produced using iBio’s proprietary technology in green plants, provided full protection of non-human primates against aerosolized Y. pestis (pneumonic plague).
About iBio, Inc.
iBio is developing proprietary products for the treatment of a range of fibrotic diseases including idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, systemic sclerosis, and scleroderma. IBIO-CFB03, produced using the Company’s proprietary gene expression technology, is the first product candidate from this program being advanced for IND development. The Company also offers proprietary products and product licenses to others based on its proprietary technologies, providing collaborators full support for turn-key implementation of its technology for protein therapeutics and vaccines.
iBio CMO LLC is a 70 percent subsidiary of iBio jointly owned with affiliates of Eastern Capital Limited for development and large-scale manufacture of plant-made pharmaceuticals. The iBio CMO multiproduct facility includes laboratory and pilot-scale operations as well as large-scale automated hydroponic systems capable of growing over 4 million plants as “in process inventory” and producing over 300 kilograms of finished therapeutic protein per year. This translates into more than a half million doses per year of a typical therapeutic antibody and approximately 50 million vaccine doses every three weeks. Facility capacity can be doubled by adding additional plant growth equipment in a space already reserved for that purpose. iBio CMO’s lease includes the right to develop another facility on the balance of the leased property that would have the effect of quadrupling capacity from the current level. iBio CMO offers a range of pharmaceutical product and process development, analytical, and manufacturing services.
In Brazil, iBio has formed a subsidiary company, iBio do Brasil Biofarmaceutical Ltda., and has been collaborating with the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz) to develop a recombinant yellow fever vaccine based on iBio technology. Further information is available at: www.ibioinc.com.
FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
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