iBio to advance COVID-19 vaccine candidate, IBIO-201

NEW YORK—iBio Inc., a biotech innovator and biologics contract manufacturing organization, has selected IBIO-201, its LicKM-Subunit vaccine, as its leading candidate for the prevention of SARS-CoV-2 infection.

The company previously announced that preclinical immunization studies with IBIO-200 and IBIO-201, combined with select adjuvants from the Infectious Disease Research Institute (IDRI), induced anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies. Additional data from cell-based pseudovirus neutralization assay testing demonstrate that IBIO-201 induced the production of more anti-spike neutralizing antibodies than IBIO-200 in immunized mice.

“Our decision to evaluate IBIO-200 and IBIO-201 in tandem, and in combination with multiple adjuvants, proved beneficial given the results observed with IBIO-201 in preclinical studies,” said Tom Isett, chairman and CEO of iBio. “While IBIO-201 produced significantly higher anti-spike neutralizing antibody titers than IBIO-200, we are still encouraged by the potential of IBIO-200.”

Continued Isett:, “We plan to conduct more focused studies on each of IBIO-200 and IBIO-201, with the goal of advancing IBIO-201 to toxicology studies ahead of planned clinical development. Meanwhile, we intend to continue preclinical development of IBIO-200 and our virus-like particle platform as a potential ‘plug-and-play’ vaccine development system.”

iBio continues to work with IDRI and the Texas A&M University System, and expects to engage additional collaborators for further characterization and testing of IBIO-201 prior to performing GLP toxicology studies.

On March 11, the company filed four provisional patent applications with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in support of its COVID-19 vaccine platforms. The company subsequently announced its virus-like particle  program (IBIO-200) and LicKM-Subunit vaccine program (IBIO-201) on March 18 and June 3, respectively—preclinical studies were subsequently initiated. On Aug. 27, iBio secured exclusive worldwide rights to an ACE2-Fc antibody therapeutic, and then on Sept. 9 announced that it intended to advance IBIO-201 while it continued to evaluate IBIO-200.