Using plants instead of mammal cell lines to produce biologic drugs came to the forefront in 2014 when some companies working trying to scale up the alternative process in an effort to produce an Ebola treatment. Now a company that uses the technology in vaccine development says it has formed a CMO joint venture to offer its plant-based processes to anyone who wants them. iBio ($IBIO) said in a release last week that it has gotten an $15 million infusion from private equity group for a 30% share in iBio CMO. As part of the deal iBio has taken on a 35-year lease for space in Bryan, Texas, that was previously owned by Caliber Biotherapeutics which iBio will use for the CMO operation. Release