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Market: TSXV
Sector: Pharmaceuticals
EPIC: MDG
Medicago
www.medicago.com/en

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.

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Medicago inks alliance with Cellectis plant sciences

16th Jan 2012, 10:50 am by Brad Lemaire
Medicago inks alliance with Cellectis plant sciences

Biotech firm Medicago, Inc. (TSE:MDG) has struck a research agreement with Cellectis plant sciences to improve therapeutic proteins expressed in tobacco leaves, the company said Monday. 

Financial terms and conditions of the research agreement were not disclosed in Monday's statement.

Medicago, which develops vaccines from virus-like particles, said that Cellectis' tool has the potential to hasten the expansion of its platform towards the production of broader therapeutic proteins.

Cellectis' chief executive, Luc Mathis, said: "I am proud to see Cellectis technology being applied for use in plants to produce potential products for human health benefit, and expect that we will see additional opportunities for our technology in the near future."

Cellectis plant sciences, a unit of Paris, France-based Cellectis, is a genome engineering specialist that makes DNA scissors called nucleases which could cut precise DNA sequences that enable a number of tools to modify a target gene.  

Cellectis nucleases, an enzyme, have the potential to allow the modification of protein glycosylation, or a process that attaches to other organic molecules, in plants uniformly and controlled thereby allowing increased efficacy of therapeutic products.  

Medicago said that by using nucleases it is possible to generate an array of glycoprotein variants and select the best candidate with the optimal glycosylation and produce it at large scale.

This approach may be applied to optimize efficacy and other protein characteristics such as solubility, therapeutic half-life, tissue distribution and interaction with complement proteins.

Medicago is focused on making vaccines using virus like particles. Its technology is based on antigens in non-transgenic plants.

Medicago, based in Quebec, runs a 24,000 square foot production facility. Its plant includes a biosafety greenhouse and extraction and purification unit. The company’s products include pandemic flu vaccine and seasonal flu vaccines.

Shares of the company traded flat Monday at 63 cents on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

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