Medicago U.S.A., a wholly owned subsidiary of Medicago Inc., has completed the construction of its cGMP facility in Research Triangle Park (RTP), North Carolina. This Virus-Like-Particle plant-based vaccine facility includes a fully automated greenhouse and a state of the art extraction and purification unit. The 97,000-square-foot cGMP facility is targeted to produce 10 million doses of pandemic influenza vaccine per month. On an annual basis, the facility would have production capacity of 40 million doses of seasonal influenza vaccine or 120 million doses of pandemic influenza vaccine.
DARPA Award
Medicago U.S.A. was awarded US$21 million from the U.S. Department of Defense’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), to demonstrate the scalable manufacturing of its plant-expressed VLP vaccines in the U.S.A. under a Technology Investment Agreement. The strategic collaboration is a $42M project in which DARPA contributes $21M, Medicago $7.5M and Alexandria Real Estate Equities Inc. ('Alexandria') $13.5M.
The Accelerated Manufacture of Pharmaceuticals (AMP) program seeks to identify new ways to produce large amounts of high quality vaccine protein in less than 3 months in response to emerging and novel biologic threats. This DARPA project is an accelerated and integrated effort to demonstrate the ability forefficient production of pandemic influenza vaccine. During the recent H1N1 influenza outbreak, Medicago's rapid plant-based VLP vaccine technology resulted in development of 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 rapid solution in the case of a pandemic.
Congressman David Price - Chairman of the House Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee.
"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. 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 in delivering innovative high-tech products and creating the jobs that will power a 21st Century economy”