-Medicago to develop a vaccine facility in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina-
RALEIGH and QUEBEC CITY, Aug. 10 /CNW/ - Medicago USA Inc., a whollyowned subsidiary of Medicago Inc. (TSX: MDG), a clinical-stagebiotechnology company focused on developing highly effective andaffordable vaccines based on proprietary manufacturing technologies andVirus-Like Particles (VLPs), today announced that it has been awarded a$21 Million grant from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency(DARPA), Broad Agency Announcement (BAA), Defense Sciences Research& Technology to demonstrate the scalable manufacturing of itsplant-expressed VLP vaccines in the U.S.A. under a Technology InvestmentAgreement.
Medicago will develop a 90,000-square-foot cGMP facility in ResearchTriangle Park (RTP), North Carolina. This state-of-the-art facility willbe a large, cost-effective and scaled-up facility for Medicago's VLPplant-based vaccine technology for the delivery of cGMP-grade vaccine.Medicago will scale-up and automate its cGMP process to demonstrate itscapacity to produce 10 million doses/month of influenza vaccines withthe potential for further expansion in the future.
This DARPA project is an accelerated and integrated effort to delivereffective production of pandemic influenza in the U.S.A. TheAccelerated Manufacture of Pharmaceuticals (AMP) program seeks toidentify new ways to produce large amounts of high quality vaccineprotein in less than 3 months in response to emerging and novel biologicthreats. The strategic collaboration is a $42M project in which DARPAcontributes $21M, Medicago $7.5M and Alexandria Real Estate EquitiesInc. ('Alexandria') $13.5M.
"We are thrilled to be awarded such significant funding from DARPAfor the development of a state-of-the-art plant-based VLP vaccinecapability in the U.S.A. as it further validates the growing andstrategic interest in our rapid and cost-effective vaccine technology,"said Andy Sheldon, President and CEO of Medicago. "This DARPA funding isalso perfectly in line with our development plan for both our pandemicand seasonal influenza products as we will now have a U.S. facilityready to participate in the $7B pandemic and seasonal influenza markets.In addition, our U.S. facility will provide us enhanced access to thevarious grant programs in the U.S.A. and we will be ready to take partin these additional funding opportunities."
Alexandria Real Estate Equities is the largest owner and leadingprovider of high-quality environmentally sustainable real estate,technical infrastructure, and services to the broad and diverse lifescience industry focused in the leading life science clusters.
"We are delighted to be working with Alexandria as they are a leaderin their field and it allows us to reduce the upfront capital requiredfor the building of our new U.S. commercial grade facility," added Mr.Sheldon.
"This collaboration further highlights the emergence of plant-basedplatforms as viable technologies for the production of valuable productslike vaccines," said Doug Dean, Senior Vice President R&D of PhilipMorris International. "As Medicago have clearly demonstrated, theirplant-based technology has significant benefits over traditionalmanufacturing methods."
During the recent H1N1 influenza outbreak, Medicago's rapidplant-based VLP vaccine technology was able to successfully develop avaccine candidate in less than a month after identifying the H1N1 strainand is therefore one of the few technologies that can provide asolution in the case of a pandemic.
"It's vitally important to our Homeland Security that we have arobust domestic vaccine supply, and this facility will add to ourproduction capacity helping mitigate future threats," said CongressmanDavid Price. "Medicago's facility will ultimately bring hundreds of goodpaying jobs to the region, and DARPA's investment in this project isanother significant contribution to local recovery efforts. This is awelcome confirmation that the Triangle continues to lead the waydelivering innovative high-tech products and creating the jobs that willpower a 21st Century economy." Rep. Price is the Chairman of the HouseHomeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee.
Medicago will host an investor conference call and webcast on August10, 2010 at 11:00 a.m. ET to discuss this development. To access theconference call by telephone, dial 647-427-7450 or 1-888-231-8191. Areplay of the call will be available by telephone through August 17,2010. To access the telephone replay, dial 416-849-0833 or1-800-642-1687 and enter reservation number 93065193 followed by thenumber sign.
Members of the media are invited to attend the press conference to discuss this development.
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When: Tuesday, August 10th at 9:00am
Where: North Carolina Biotech Center Auditorium,
15 T.W. Alexander Drive, Research Triangle Park, NC 27709
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About Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc.
Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc., Landlord of Choice to the LifeScience Industry(R), is the largest owner and pre-eminentfirst-in-class REIT and leading provider of high-quality environmentallysustainable real estate, technical infrastructure, and services to thebroad and diverse life science industry focused in the leading lifescience clusters. Client tenants include institutional (universities andindependent not-for-profit institutions), pharmaceutical,biotechnology, medical device, product, service and translationalentities, renewable energy entities, as well as government agencies.Alexandria's operating platform is based on the principle of"clustering," with assets and operations located in key life sciencemarkets. Their asset base approximates 12.7 million rentable square feet(including spaces undergoing active redevelopment and propertiesundergoing ground-up development).
About Medicago
Medicago is committed to provide highly effective and affordablevaccines based on proprietary Virus-Like Particle (VLP) andmanufacturing technologies. Medicago is developing VLP vaccines toprotect against pandemic and seasonal influenza using a transientexpression system which produces recombinant vaccine antigens innon-transgenic plants. Their lead vaccine candidate, H5N1, hassuccessfully completed a PI clinical trial and will be entering a PIIclinical trial in 2010. Medicago's technology has potential to offeradvantages of speed and cost over competitive technologies. It coulddeliver a vaccine for testing in about a month after the identificationand reception of genetic sequences from a pandemic strain. Thisproduction time frame has the potential to allow vaccination of thepopulation before the first wave of a pandemic strikes and to supplylarge volumes of vaccine antigens to the world market. Additionalinformation about Medicago is available at www.medicago.com.