Public healthMedicago awarded $21 million for rapid vaccine development
DARPA is putting money in a burgeoning Accelerated Manufacture of Pharmaceuticals, or AMP, program, which aims to revolutionize current, egg-based vaccine production models, and yield vaccines within three months of “emerging and novel biological threats”
Medicago USA Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Medicago Inc., a clinical-stage biotechnology company, 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 the company’s plant-expressed virus-like particles (VLP) vaccines in the United States under a Technology Investment Agreement.
Medicago will develop a 90,000-square-foot cGMP facility in Research Triangle Park (RTP), North Carolina. Medicago said it would scale-up and automate its cGMP process to demonstrate its capacity to produce 10 million doses/month of influenza vaccines with the potential for further expansion in the future.
Danger Room’s Katie Drummond notes that the funding is a smaller part of DARPA’s burgeoning Accelerated Manufacture of Pharmaceuticals, or AMP, program, which aims to revolutionize current, egg-based vaccine production models, and yield vaccines within three months of “emerging and novel biological threats.” In February, the agency gave $21 million to Texas A&M for the construction of a 145,000 square-foot “biotherapeutic production facility” that uses mobile “pods” to grow vaccine-infused tobacco plants.
Medicago says that the strategic collaboration is a $42 million project in which DARPA contributes $21 million, Medicago $7.5 million, and Alexandria Real Estate Equities Inc. $13.5 million.
“We are thrilled to be awarded such significant funding from DARPA for the development of a state-of-the-art plant-based VLP vaccine capability in the U.S.A. as it further validates the growing and strategic interest in our rapid and cost-effective vaccine technology,” said Andy Sheldon, President and CEO of Medicago. “This DARPA funding is also perfectly in line with our development plan for both our pandemic and seasonal influenza products as we will now have a U.S. facility ready to participate in the $7 billion pandemic and seasonal influenza markets. In addition, our U.S. facility will provide us enhanced access to the various grant programs in the U.S.A. and we will be ready to take part in these additional funding opportunities.”
During the recent H1N1 influenza outbreak, Medicago’s rapid plant-based VLP vaccine technology was able successfully to develop a vaccine candidate in less than a month after identifying the H1N1 strain and is therefore one of the few technologies that can provide a solution in the case of a pandemic.
“It’s vitally important to our Homeland Security that we have a robust domestic vaccine supply, and this facility will add to our production capacity helping mitigate future threats,” said Congressman David Price. “Medicago’s facility will ultimately bring hundreds of good paying jobs to the region, and DARPA’s investment in this project is another significant contribution to local recovery efforts. This is a welcome confirmation that the Triangle continues to lead the way delivering innovative high-tech products and creating the jobs that will power a 21st Century economy.” Price is the chairman of the House Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee.
