With early ties to the Panorama Research organization, Planet Biotechnology is organized around identifying and developing promising antibodies and receptor-antibody fusion molecules for the treatment and prevention of infectious diseases including emerging diseases and bio-threat agents. Principals of the firm adapt antibody and receptor-antibody products for rapid production in non-food, non-feed green plants grown in greenhouses. This same approach has been used by others to produce three anti-Ebola virus antibodies that are undergoing clinical trials in Africa. The firm's unique antibody-based products are produced through cultivation of genetically modified green plants. Principals of the firm call the antibodies produced in such green plants "Plantibodies"-- proprietary, optimized and humanized antibodies that common green plants can be engineered to produce in mass quantities. The first company to have successfully produced and clinically tested a Plantibody. PLANET has secured and is developing five initial products that optimize the unique functional and manufacturability characteristics of Plantibodies. Monoclonal antibodies have been extraordinarily successful in treating life-threatening and severely debilitating conditions such as cancer, cardiovascular disease and rheumatoid arthritis. To date, such products have all been IgG (serum) antibodies administered systemically by injection to achieve a therapeutic effect when disease is present throughout the body. IgG antibodies circulate via the blood stream and lymph fluids to all parts of the body and are specialized for attacking disease causing organisms and pathogenic cells after they have succeeded in invading the body. IgGs, however, are not optimal for preventing such disease-causing organisms and toxins from entering the body. In fact, when IgGs are used to prevent local invasion through topical and mucosal administration they are broken down rapidly by proteases in environmentally exposed tissues. PLANET has focused on preventing and treating disease by developing a class of antibodies specifically adapted to interact with pathogenic organisms and toxins before they disseminate throughout the body. These antibodies, called secretory IgA (SIgA), are normally secreted onto mucosal surfaces and are the most abundant antibody class produced by the body. SIgA can be used locally, has about twice the binding power of IgG and approximately four times the resistance to protease degradation. The company developed a Protected-SIgA Technology: Polyclonal SIgA is produced abundantly by humans and animals, but unlike monoclonal IgGs there is currently no mammalian cell culture system that is capable of producing abundant amounts of monoclonal SIgA. In fact, monoclonal SIgA can only be produced in transgenic plants. PLANET's unique technology enables production of Proprietary Secretory Immunoglobulin A (Protected-SIgA) products with extraordinary specificity and stability in a highly cost-effective manner using transgenic plants.
