Medicago inks pact with Genopole for flu vaccine production in France

Medicago Inc, a biotechnology company focused on developing highly effective and affordable vaccines based on proprietary manufacturing technologies and Virus-Like Particles (VLP), and Genopole biopark (Evry, France), have signed a partnership agreement with a plan to build a commercial facility to manufacture pandemic and seasonal influenza vaccines in France. Medicago and Genopole believe that this facility could complement France's existing domestic influenza vaccine production infrastructure by offering surge capacity of influenza vaccines before the first wave of a pandemic strikes. This agreement builds on the feasibility study announced in July 2008 which was successfully completed this year to evaluate the economic and technological viability of a novel vaccine production facility in France.

Genopole and Medicago will work together to establish a commercial-scale facility based on Medicago's Proficia plant-based manufacturing technology and VLP vaccine technology on Genopole's site in Evry, France. The new facility would initially produce pandemic and seasonal influenza vaccines, and in the long-term could be used for a broad range of vaccines and other biodefense related products. Construction of the facility is conditional upon Medicago's successful completion of a phase-I clinical trial with its H5N1 pandemic influenza vaccine and a reasonable level of commitment by the French authorities to support this novel technology.