Algenex SL, a private biotechnology company delivering disruptive technologies for recombinant biologics production, and FATRO S.p.A, a leader in the field of veterinary pharmaceutical products, today announce that they have entered into a new commercial license agreement for the development of a second CrisBio®-based vaccine for a major swine indication.

This is the second commercial license agreement between the two companies. The first agreement, for the worldwide use and industrial production of a recombinant vaccine using CrisBio® technology, was signed in September 2015.

CrisBio® is Algenex’ proprietary and patent protected Baculovirus vector-mediated expression platform that harnesses the power of insects to act as natural single-use bioreactors. It is a versatile and robust alternative to current bioreactor-based expression technologies and offers additional benefits including linear scalability, reduced production costs and increased productivity, reaching gram per litre yields. In October, Algenex announced the submission of a dossier to the European Medicines Agency (EMA) for a recombinant VLP vaccine produced using Algenex’ proprietary CrisBio® technology . The submission is targeting a European marketing authorization via the centralized approval system. This was the first vaccine produced using Algenex’ CrisBio® technology to be submitted for regulatory approval.

“We are delighted to have strengthened our collaboration with FATRO through this new commercial license agreement,” said Dr. Jose Escribano, Founder and CSO of Algenex. “We’ve been working closely with FATRO since  2015 and this new agreement is further validation for our proprietary CrisBio® platform and its potential to transform vaccine production in major indications in both animal and human health. We remain committed to fulfilling our vision of transforming protein production to enable universal access to biotechnology.”

“For FATRO, CrisBio® technology represents an important opportunity to expand its portfolio of vaccines for veterinary use with a series of highly innovative products,” stated Dr. Francesco Meliota, vice president responsible for IVMPs, “and the excellent results obtained during the development of the first product further reinforced our belief in its practical potentialities, convincing us to sign this new agreement with Algenex.”

Commercial and financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.