The rapid fire test, which was conducted at Medicago’s facility in Durham, North Carolina, is the fifth milestone under a technology investment agreement with DARPA to demonstrate the scalable manufacturing of Medicago’s plant-expressed VLP vaccines in the US.
So far, Medicago has received $19.8m milestone payment from DARPA for the project, and anticipates receiving the fifth milestone payment of $1m shortly.
Medicago chief executive officer Andy Sheldon said, "The completion of the rapid fire test marks a substantial achievement in demonstrating our technology and the potential for Medicago to be the first responder in the event of a pandemic flu outbreak."
As part of the rapid fire test, production of the H1N1 VLP influenza vaccine candidate began on 25 March 2012 and was completed in 30 days on 24 April 2012.
The production lots were tested by a third party laboratory which confirmed that a single dose of the H1N1 VLP influenza vaccine candidate induced protective levels of neutralizing antibodies in an animal model.