New iBio, Caliber Collaboration Accelerating Development of Clinical Studies For Anti-Fibrosis Therapy

iBio, Inc, a leading pharmaceutical company using plant-based technology for developing and manufacturing biological products, has announced that it is now collaborating with Caliber Biotherapeutics LLC, which will be responsible for scaling-up and producing the necessary equipment for clinical development of iBio, Inc.’s lead anti-fibrosis product, IBIO-CFB03. The pipeline developed by Caliber Biotherapeutics LLC will be used in the Investigational New Drug (IND)-enabling toxicology program and setting up the first human clinical trials with IBIO-CFB03.

IBIO-CFB03 is an iBio, Inc proprietary product that was first developed by Dr. Carol Feghali-Bostwick at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) to treat idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, systemic sclerosis, and other fibrotic diseases. Dr. Carol Feghali-Bostwick is a Kitty Trask Holt Endowed Chair and Professor of Medicine in the Division of Rheumatology and Immunology at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC), and will lead the first human clinical trials with IBIO-CFB03 in the near future.

Robert Erwin, iBio’s President, noted, “Our engagement of Caliber, which has pilot and full-scale production capabilities, enables us to satisfy all of our production needs for human clinical trials of IBIO-CFB03.”

Caliber Biotherapeutics LLC is the holder of license, for research purposes, of iBioLaunch technology. It is the largest plant-made pharmaceutical protein manufacturing facility in the world, and is currently located in College Station, Texas, with the support of several Texas life sciences companies, together with the support by Cancer Prevention and Research Institution of Texas (CPRIT) and U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). More recently, iBio, Inc granted Caliber Biotherapeutics LLC a license to use iBioLaunch technology to develop antibodies to target the Ebola virus.

Last year, iBio, Inc. collaborated with Novici Biotech LLC, and combined the iBioLaunch™ platform with Novici’s GRAMMR^® technology, which directs gene expression towards optimal product performance and gene expression, thereby broadening iBio’s fibrosis therapeutics program. iBio, Inc.’s development of clinical services and human studies was performed with CBR International Corporation consultation. The fibrosis therapeutics program was developed with the assistance of a specially assembled Clinical Advisory Board composed of internationally recognized experts in fibrotic diseases.

Currently, iBio, Inc is collaborating with Caliber Biotherapeutics LLC and Novici Biotech LLC in additional project that remain undisclosed for now.