iBio’s FastPharming System To Develop 2019-nCov Vaccine

China and USA companies announced a collaboration to develop and test a new 2019-nCoV vaccine to be manufactured using iBio’s FastPharming System™.

The FastPharming System™ combines vertical farming, automated hydroponics, and glycan engineering technologies to rapidly deliver gram quantities of high-quality monoclonal antibodies, vaccines, bioinks, and other proteins.

The companies,  iBio, Inc. and Beijing CC-Pharming Ltd., said in a press release issued on February 4, 2020, ‘they are expediting work as predictions about the spread of the 2019-nCoV outbreak to continue to worsen.’

This joint effort intends to leverage 25 years of vaccine research and development experience – inclusive of work on the MERS-coronavirus by Dr. Kevin Wang, along with the decades of experience that Dr. Sylvain Marcel possesses in the rapid design of manufacturing processes for biopharmaceutical production in plant-based expression systems. 

If successful, the research will deliver product candidates which can then be quickly produced at iBio’s FastPharming Manufacturing Facility.

Originally built in 2010 with funding from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), part of the U.S. Department of Defense, iBio’s FastPharming Facility was part of the “Blue Angel” initiative to establish facilities capable of rapid delivery of medical countermeasures in response to a disease pandemic. 

The factory is equipped with automated hydroponics and vertical farming systems for the production of a wide array of biological medicines using a relative of the tobacco plant as the “bioreactor.” 

Accordingly, iBio and CC-Pharming will be in a position to rapidly scale-up vaccine/therapeutic candidates that may come from the collaboration by growing large numbers of plants to produce the products.

To date, the FastPharming Technology has been used to produce antibody candidates for Ebola and Dengue fever viruses, while human and animal studies have been completed for vaccine candidates, including yellow fever virus, human papillomavirus, seasonal influenza, and avian influenza. 

Dr. Wang commented, “This is an important collaboration to develop plant-derived vaccine strategies for the emerging coronavirus outbreak here in China and around the world.” 

“iBio’s capabilities will enhance our ability to rapidly scale-up vaccine candidate production in an effort to combat the 2019-nCoV virus’ threat to global health.”

Further information is available at CC-Pharming.

iBio, Inc., is a global leader in plant-based biologics manufacturing. 

Coronavirus vaccine development news published by Precision Vaccinations.