Medicago Inc. a biotechnology company focused on developing highly effective and competitive vaccines based on proprietary manufacturing technologies and Virus-Like Particles (VLPs), announced an extension to its partnering agreement of July 2009 with Genopole. Medicago and Genopole will also work towards the creation a laboratory for research on vaccine and antibody targets of interest for France in terms of public health and bio-defence. This laboratory is planned to involve French academic research institutes and will be located at the Genopole bio-park in Evry, France. This extension was executed at the 2010 Symposium Franco-Québécois in the presence of Jean Charest, Premier of Quebec and Christine Lagarde, French Minister of Economy, Finance and Industry.
On July 21, 2009, Medicago and Genopole signed a partnering agreement to collaborate on the establishment of a commercial-scale facility based on Medicago's Proficia plant-based manufacturing technology and VLP vaccine technology on Genopole's site in Evry, France. Following Medicago's successful completion of its Phase I clinical trial, Genopole and Medicago met with French authorities to identify specific interests and needs for research and development of new vaccines and antibodies of high priority and concluded that the proposed implementation of such a laboratory for joint research on vaccine and antibody targets was a step towards the establishment of a commercial-scale facility.
“Medicago is very pleased to expand its long-standing relationship with Genopole,” said Andy Sheldon, President and CEO of Medicago. “Medicago is committed to using innovative manufacturing approaches to develop better vaccines that can be produced very rapidly and cost-effectively. This laboratory could be a significant asset to further validate the broad application potential of our proprietary Virus-Like Particles and plant-based production/extraction technologies.”
“We are glad to continue our collaboration with Medicago. Their innovative Virus-Like Particle and non-transgenic plant-based manufacturing technologies show great promise for the development of vaccines” said Pierre Tambourin, Director of Genopole. “This expanded collaboration will support our biopark's leadership in innovation and bioproduction by offering unique research and manufacturing capabilities to France and Europe.”
Genopole is the leading French science park dedicated to life sciences. Its campus - near Paris - combines academic (CEA, CNRS, INRA, INSERM, Université d'Evry Val d'Essonne) and private research laboratories, university/higher education facilities, biotechnology companies, and an incubator for biotech start-ups.
Medicago is committed to provide highly effective and competitive vaccines based on proprietary Virus-Like Particle (VLP) and manufacturing technologies. Medicago is developing VLP vaccines to protect against H5N1 pandemic influenza, using a transient expression system which produces recombinant vaccine antigens in non-transgenic plants.