Date: Jun 18, 2015 Author: Press Release Source: Company Data (
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The goal of this strategic partnership is to join forces to bring to market new and improved biopharmeutical products.
As the first step of this agreement, Bionaturis Group will support the manufacturing development of a first-in-class vaccine to prevent the human common cold.
Jerez, June 18th 2015. Bionaturis Group and Biological Mimetics, Inc., -BMI- (based in Maryland, USA) has started a new strategic collaboration agreement to jointly develop new vaccines for human and animal health applications.
In the context of this agreement Bionaturis Group will use its proprietary FLYLIFE platform for the production of experimental batches of vaccines designed using BMI's Immune Refocusing Technology (IRT). Specifically, as part of the agreement, Bionaturis Group has begun the works corresponding to the manufacturing proof of concept of a candidate of BMI of a first in man vaccine against Human Rhinovirus, the cause of the common cold as well as primary infant viral pneumonia and its known associations with asthma.
According to the National Center of Health, in the United States there are around 62 million cases annually of common cold with human rhinovirus infection being the culprit for about 35% of them. There are over 100 different types of rhinoviruses, which makes developing a vaccine against rhinoviruses difficult. According to experts, the economic consequences of absenteeism from work, school and primary care services caused by the common cold have an impact, only in the United States economy, between 35 and 40 billion US dollars a year.
The lead of BMI is designed to become the first in man cross serotype vaccine on the market to prevent and/or limit clinical complications from infection. The vaccine is to undergo preclinical and process development and evaluation, carrying out safety, immunogenicity and efficacy trials using both qualified in vitro testing and later in Phase 1 trails in humans- as there are no effective animal models. In this case, Bionaturis Group is exclusively involved in the process development and manufacturing and future manufacture of the vaccine. As part of the strategic agreement, both companies are evaluating other candidates to be jointly developed for human and animal health applications.
For the Bionaturis Group's Chief Executive Officer, Victor Infante, this new strategic partnership "is a validation of our FLYLIFE system for vaccine development in one of the strictest and most competitive markets in the world. There´s a long path ahead but the footsteps are firm. BMI is a fully complementary and effective discovery company with an outstanding scientific record and vast relationships with its country Government authorities".
For their part, BMI´s CEO, Peter L. Nara, considers that " its partnership with Bionaturis with its FLYLIFE technology as a new, more rapid, and cost effective manufacturing platform for producing new and improved human and animal health vaccines. The technology represents a disruptive advancement in manufacturing biologically active proteins that are so important in vaccine and overall protein therapeutic development. Coupling a discovery pipeline for new and improved vaccine antigens coming from BMI's Immune Refocusing platform technology with the FLYLIFE manufacturing system of Bionaturis creates a very competitive corporate partnership for bringing to market an unprecedented pipeline of biologicals".
About Bionaturis Group
The Bionaturis Group offers cutting-edge biotechnological drugs and services for human and animal health. Considered an international benchmark in the vaccines research, Bionaturis Group closed last exercise with an increase of sales of 73% and a positive EBITDA of 29% compared to the previous year. The biotechnological Group which envisages a global access to health is listed on the Spanish stock exchange for SMEs (ticker BNT).
About BMI
Biological Mimetics, Inc. (BMI) is a biotechnology/bio-pharmaceutical company focused on the discovery of novel biologicals (e.g. vaccines and therapeutic monoclonal antibodies) for human and animal applications. BMI with its platform technology of immune refocusing discovers and brings to clinical trials lead vaccines and/or monoclonal antibodies that can prevent or treat humans and animals from infectious diseases and cancer. Among its main partners there are pharmaceutical Companies such as GlaxoSmithKline, Roche and Crucell, and institutions as: National Institutes of Health -NIH- (Bethesda, MD), Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency --DARPA- (Arlington) or the US Defense Department itself, in Washington, D.C., to name a few.
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