Plant-based product developer iBio, which announced just before Labor Day a deal with GE Healthcare and the Fraunhofer Center for Molecular Biotechnology to develop biopharma and vaccine manufacturing gear, announced Monday that the FDA has accepted its IND for a vaccine candidate. The product, based on the iBioLaunch technology platform, was made by Fraunhofer in its cGMP pilot facility in Newark, DE. It is anticipated that human clinical trials based upon this IND will start soon.
The iBioLaunch platform is a plant-based expression system for recombinant protein production. It requires no animal cells or genetically altered plants, which the company says slow the manufacturing process and raise its cost.
Fraunhofer invented the technology and has been developing it over the past eight years, says an announcement. The intellectual property is owned by iBio, which sponsors the platform's development for human healthcare purposes.
- here's the iBio release