US biopharmaceutical company opens new vaccines plant
The Texas company will use novel plant-based and modular production technologies
New biopharmaceutical company, Caliber Biotherapeutics, has opened the world's largest plant-made pharmaceutical manufacturing facility in Bryan, Texas, with the capability of producing 10-100 million doses of infectious vaccines per month, and hundreds of thousands of doses of protein biotherapeutics such as monoclonal antibodies.
In addition to its plant-based facility, Caliber will also develop a proprietary product pipeline for cancer and infectious diseases utilising cell- and microbial-based production systems.
Headquartered in Bryan/College Station, Texas, and led by physician-scientist and biodefense expert, Brett Giroir and Barry Holtz, an internationally recognised pioneer in plant-made pharmaceuticals, Caliber Biotherapeutics provides a fundamentally different approach to vaccine and drug development.
‘With plant-based systems, we have an unprecedented level of flexibility and scalability,’ said Dr Holtz, Caliber's cso. ‘This enables simultaneous production of multiple proteins and rapid changeovers from one product to another in order to meet patients' needs and respond to emerging infectious diseases and bioterror threats.’
‘The Caliber platform is designed to be uniquely agile and responsive, enabling us to accelerate development of products with improved efficacy, reduced cost and enhanced safety’ said Dr Giroir, chief medical officer. ‘Our goal is to make a rapid, meaningful impact on patients with unmet medical needs, both in the United States as well as in lesser developed countries with profound public health challenges.’
The company said it would be announcing new major strategic alliances in the coming months.
