A Newark company is reporting another victory in the important job of getting flu vaccine developed more rapidly.
iBio, Inc. announced that its plant-based iBioLaunch platform produced a vaccine candidate for a new flu virus.
The work was done at a third party laboratory.
The validation for the vaccine for H7N9 influenza was achieved in 21 days.
The iBioLaunch platform eliminates the need to culture cells under sterile conditions, removes uncertainty about yield consistency for large volumes of production, and, subject to regulatory approval, could deliver vaccine doses for emergency use against pandemic and bioterrorism threats in weeks rather than months. The system has already been used as part of vaccines for other strains of flu.
The H7N9 influenza virus has killed 36 of 131 people reported to have been infected in China. Due to the slowness of conventional approaches to vaccine development and production, the only effective control measures currently employed in many circumstances involve patient isolation and care. iBio’s s stock trades for 44 cents a share, but has been as high as $1.70 a share in the last year.
