Is this stuff going to be commercially useful, & if so, why aren't people like (eg) IMNX beating a path to their door ?
VACAVILLE, Calif.--(BW HealthWire)--Sept. 6, 2001--A patent issued to Large Scale Biology Corporation (Nasdaq:LSBC - news) this week represents a substantial increase in the Company's range of process development and biomanufacturing capabilities through a proprietary method of producing pharmaceutical-grade protein. U.S. Patent 6,284,875 covers LSBC's method of extracting commercial scale quantities of active proteins from the intercellular material of plants. The process does not disrupt the plant material and permits extraction of a second protein from the same plant material. The new patent complements two previous patents in the LSBC portfolio (U.S. Patent 6,033,895 and U.S. Patent 6,037,456) for methods that allow homogenization of the plant materials in the process, permitting other broad, but different, methods of extraction.
Large Scale Biology Corporation views the new patent as further strengthening of its unique ability to undertake large-scale biomanufacturing of commercial products from plants. LSBC Chairman and CEO Robert L. Erwin characterizes the new patent as ``a case of surpassing ourselves in an area where we are already far ahead of the industry in our commercial capabilities. In our California headquarters and our Kentucky biomanufacturing facilities, our potential for commercial product development has expanded exponentially.''
The methods disclosed in the new patent protect LSBC's proprietary manufacturing technique used to produce non-Hodgkin's lymphoma vaccines and other human proteins involving its proprietary viral vector-based GENEWARE® technology. The new patent also protects LSBC's invention for extraction of proteins from transgenic plants engineered to produce therapeutic human proteins such as monoclonal antibodies. The new patent and the previous two complementary patents extend extraction applications to products manufactured using alternate expression systems in a wide range of host plants. ``LSBC is able to handle virtually any biomanufacturing challenge,'' Erwin said. ``We are the ideal partner for any company with bioprocessing requirements. This patent confirms our leadership position in the area of manufacturing biopharmaceuticals from plants.'' |
