iBio and Fraunhofer Execute Business Development and Marketing Agreement with GE Healthcare
NEWARK, Del. & UPPSALA, Sweden, Sep 01, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- iBio, Inc., its development collaborator, Fraunhofer USA Center for Molecular Biotechnology (CMB), and GE Healthcare, a unit of General Electric Company /quotes/comstock/13*!ge/quotes/nls/ge (GE 15.08, +0.07, +0.47%) , today announced their entry into an agreement to jointly develop and globally market manufacturing solutions for biopharmaceuticals and vaccines based upon their respective proprietary technologies. Financial terms are not being disclosed.
This new business initiative combines the value of GE Healthcare's capabilities and worldwide presence in life sciences, iBio's highly efficient iBioLaunch(TM) plant-based vaccine and therapeutic protein manufacturing platform, and CMB's advanced vaccine and molecular biology expertise.
iBioLaunch plant-based technology enables the production of vaccine and therapeutic proteins at substantially lower capital and operating costs than are possible with other technologies. GE Healthcare has developed solutions and offerings including those which enable customers to build processes and facilities based on single-use and ready-to-use technologies.
In this collaboration with iBio and CMB, GE Healthcare will supply bioprocessing products and process expertise for integration with the iBioLaunch platform. It will also support the development of products based on the iBioLaunch platform and product offering.
The manufacturing solutions covered by the agreement include product licenses, technology transfer services, design of upstream and downstream manufacturing processes; supplies of equipment, consumables and related validation support, construction of buildings, facility operations and related financial services.
"This is an exciting development in GE Healthcare's strategy to deliver more efficient and cost-effective biopharmaceutical and vaccine manufacturing technologies," said Peter Ehrenheim, President and CEO, Life Sciences, GE Healthcare.
"We expect this relationship with GE Healthcare to accelerate and broaden market penetration for our technology through access to GE Healthcare's existing relationships and its skill and experience with project implementation and process development," said Robert B. Kay, Chairman and CEO of iBio. "This is another implementation of our model to affiliate and out-source with best-in-class collaborators like GE Healthcare and CMB as the fastest and lowest risk path to revenue growth."
"We have already done considerable planning and work with GE Healthcare to prepare for implementation of this agreement," said Dr. Vidadi Yusibov, Executive Director of CMB and Chief Scientific Officer of iBio. "Therefore, we expect this relationship to start quickly and continue long after its initial three-year term to provide important results for our collective customers as we combine GE Healthcare's products, skills and relationships with the technology we developed and are implementing in our new Delaware facility."
About iBio, Inc.
iBio, Inc. is a biopharmaceutical company commercializing its proprietary technology, the iBioLaunch(TM) platform, for the production of biologics including vaccines and therapeutic proteins. The iBioLaunch platform uses transient gene expression in green plants for superior efficiency in protein production. Advantages include significantly lower capital and process costs, and the technology is ideally suited to infectious disease applications where speed, scalability, and surge capacity are important. iBio's strategy is to utilize its technology for development and manufacture of its own product candidates and work with both corporate and government clients to reduce their costs during product development and meet their needs for low cost, high quality biologics manufacturing systems. iBio owns technology developed at the Fraunhofer USA Center for Molecular Biotechnology, and continues to sponsor development and refinement of the technology for broad applications in human healthcare. Further information is available at www.ibioinc.com.
About GE Healthcare:
GE Healthcare provides transformational medical technologies and services that are shaping a new age of patient care. Our broad expertise in medical imaging and information technologies, medical diagnostics, patient monitoring systems, drug discovery, biopharmaceutical manufacturing technologies, performance improvement and performance solutions services help our customers to deliver better care to more people around the world at a lower cost. In addition, we partner with healthcare leaders, striving to leverage the global policy change necessary to implement a successful shift to sustainable healthcare systems.
Our "healthymagination" vision for the future invites the world to join us on our journey as we continuously develop innovations focused on reducing costs, increasing access and improving quality and efficiency around the world. Headquartered in the United Kingdom, GE Healthcare is a $16 billion unit of General Electric Company /quotes/comstock/13*!ge/quotes/nls/ge (GE 15.08, +0.07, +0.47%) . Worldwide, GE Healthcare employs more than 46,000 people committed to serving healthcare professionals and their patients in more than 100 countries. For more information about GE Healthcare, visit our website at www.gehealthcare.com. For our latest news, please visit http://newsroom.gehealthcare.com
About Fraunhofer USA Center for Molecular Biotechnology
Fraunhofer USA CMB, a division of Fraunhofer USA, Inc., is a not-for-profit research organization whose mission is to develop safe and effective vaccines targeting infectious diseases and autoimmune disorders. The technology CMB developed for iBio, Inc. provides a safe, rapid and economical alternative for both vaccine and therapeutic protein production. The Center conducts research in the area of plant biotechnology, utilizing new, cutting edge technologies applicable to the diagnosis, prevention and treatment of human and animal diseases. The Center houses individuals with expertise and excellence in plant virology, pathology, molecular biology, immunology, vaccinology, protein engineering, and biochemistry. Further information is available at www.fraunhofer-cmb.org.