Xcellerex, Inc. announced today that Project GreenVax has agreed to acquire XDR GMP single-use production bioreactors from Xcellerex. The systems will be deployed in a new facility currently under construction in Bryan, Texas. Project GreenVax is spearheaded by Texas Plant-Expressed Vaccine Consortium, which consists of G-Con, LLC and The Texas A&M University System. Financial terms were not disclosed.
“The XDR system has been demonstrated to be very adaptable and effective in growing wide variety of organisms to support our process needs,” commented Dr. Barry Holtz, president of G-Con. “The XDR system was selected for several reasons, including competitive capital costs, and a lower overall operating cost compared to that of conventional steam-in-place reactors.” Xcellerex founder and Chief Technology Officer Parrish Galliher added, “The GreenVax project is an exciting outgrowth of the work we have been doing over the past several years with DARPA’s Accelerated Manufacture of Pharmaceuticals program. GreenVax has developed a very innovative process and we are pleased they selected the XDR system as an important part of their production train.” Project GreenVax, which utilizes tobacco plants rather than the current egg-based vaccine technology, holds the promise of shortening vaccine production to a fraction of the current time, allowing rapid response to newly emerging viruses not possible with current technology.
Project GreenVax was designed for a projected final scale capacity of 100 million doses per month. The flexibility of the plant-based system, combined with its low cost and ability to massively scale, may provide vaccine protection not only to citizens of the United States, but to many parts of the world that cannot currently afford vaccines.
The GreenVax Project will be headquartered on a secure, 21-acre site on the campus of the Texas A&M Health Science Center in Bryan, Texas.
The custom-designed 145,000 square foot biotherapeutic production facility will be constructed and managed by G-Con.
