Caliber opens world's largest plant-made pharmaceutical facility in Bryan

Apr 26 2011

Caliber Biotherapeutics, a fully-integrated biopharmaceutical company, announced the opening of 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 utilizing cell- and microbial-based production systems. The end result will be new, more effective and affordable vaccines and biotherapeutics for patients – delivered in a time frame in which they are needed.

Led by physician-scientist and biodefense expert, Brett Giroir, M.D., and Barry Holtz, Ph.D., an internationally recognized pioneer in plant-made pharmaceuticals, Caliber Biotherapeutics represents 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 Chief Scientific Officer. "This enables simultaneous production of multiple proteins and rapid change-overs 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."

In the coming months, Caliber will be announcing new major strategic alliances and its priorities for product development.

SOURCE Caliber Biotherapeutics