Quarterly Update - December 2016

PlantForm advancing HIV and Ebola research

PlantForm Corporation is advancing research aimed at fighting two deadly diseases, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and Ebola.

On Dec. 12, PlantForm announced a financial contribution of up to $117,400 and technical and business advisory services from the National Research Council of Canada Industrial Research Assistance Program (IRAP) for research on innovative antibody treatments for HIV. It is the third round of funding PlantForm has received from IRAP for the HIV project since 2012, for a total financial contribution of up to $1,484,970.

The new funding will enable PlantForm to continue development, production and testing of antibodies for a potent anti-HIV therapeutic cocktail to treat strains of the disease circulating in sub-Saharan Africa and parts of the developing world.

The new agreement will support the current phase of the project until March 31, 2017. Funding for the project is provided through IRAP’s Canadian HIV Technology Development (CHTD) Program, which is part of the Canadian HIV Vaccine Initiative (CHVI), a collaboration between the Government of Canada and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. See the news release.

Collaboration is also under way with University of New Mexico scientist Dr. Steven Bradfute to advance research aimed at improving understanding of Ebola virus and improving existing vaccines by inducing more effective immune responses to infection.

PlantForm’s vivoXPRESS^® biopharmaceutical manufacturing system will be used to express up to nine unique glycoproteins found on Filoviridae, the family of viruses that cause Ebola and Marburg disease, two severe and often fatal viral hemorrhagic fevers.

The three-month project builds upon PlantForm’s recent collaboration with IRAP and the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID).

“PlantForm is proud to contribute to research focused on these important public health challenges,” said Dr. Don Stewart, PlantForm’s President and CEO. “We are committed to making low-cost, effective and safer drugs available where they are needed most.”

Wishing you happy holidays &
all the best in 2017!