Deep Dive: iBio (ticker: IBIO) "Enabling Next-Gen Biologics."
By De’Airius "De" Salibi of Blacksmiths Capital Research
Company Overview: iBio, Inc.
iBio, Inc. is a next generation biotechnology company that provides manufacturing services and contract development using their proprietary, eco-friendly FastPharming® System at their huge 130,000-square-foot FastPharming® Facility in Bryan, Texas.
What’s FastPharming®?:
iBio grows a relative to tobacco, N.benthamiana using hydroponics
Synthesizes or “lab creates/clones” the protein of interest (i.e. Covid’s spike protein) and combine it with a proprietary vector -- think of it as a “car” and the protein as the “passenger”
Load those vectors into agrobacteria that are suited to infect these specific plants
Submerges the plants under vacuum in a solution that contains the agrobacteria, which then causes the plant’s leaves to suck up the microbes, which deliver that vector + protein into the plant cells,
the vectors then instruct the plant cells to mass produce the desired protein, then
After a week the plant leaves are harvested (think of blending a green smoothie)
The solution is purified until industry standard proteins are separated and ready for use.
Keys:
Speed
Scalability
Eco-friendly
Safety -- mammalian virus can’t grow in plants so minimizes contamination risk
Consistency
Versatile
Cost Effective
Pipeline:
● IBIO-100 candidates have been shown to address symptoms of fibrosis in highly diseased human tissue in addition to efficacy in preclinical models
● IBIO-400 for the treatment of classical swine fever
● COVID Treatments: IBIO-201: vaccine candidate combining antigens derived from the spike protein (“S protein”) fused with iBio’s patented LicKM™ booster molecule, recently completed IND-enabling toxicology studies. The studies identified no adverse effects at low or high doses. The Company also reported on development of IBIO-202, a subunit vaccine candidate that targets the nucleocapsid protein (“N protein”) of SARS-CoV-2. N proteins of many coronaviruses are highly immunogenic and are expressed abundantly during infection. In addition, the N protein is more highly conserved than the S protein, and therefore new viral variants may be less likely to escape vaccine protection.”
Top Highlights and Additional Future Catalysts:
The state of the art facility was originally built in 2010 with funding from the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) as a part of the “Blue Angel” initiative to establish facilities capable of rapid delivery of medical countermeasures in response to a disease pandemic.
Remained active, unlike the other two facilities in this section of the Blue Angel initiative project, but was mismanaged and forgotten about.
Now they have an entirely new, and extremely experienced, executive team that has rebranded iBio.
In addition, they have already spoken with representatives from DARPA and I anticipate the Biden administration will not make the same mistake of not utilizing this brilliant facility to prepare for the inevitable, next pandemic (AKA keep your eyes out for potential bipartisan funding from the Infrastructure Plan).
Continual IP development: 98 issued patents + 20 active applications (Did someone say moat?!)
US Organ Shortage: gap between supply and demand creates market for 3D-bioprinted tissues and organs, which will be a $2 Billion dollar industry by 2025.
iBio and Fraunhofer USA Concluded Litigation and entered into a License Agreement. $16 million of the $28 million was to be paid in full on Friday, May 14th, which means it'll be a part of their Fiscal 2021 Third Quarter results on Monday, May 17th.
Links to more resources:
iBio and CC-Pharming Initiate Joint Development of Coronavirus Vaccine (February 2020)
iBio Inc Gearing Up For A Major Move - Insider Financial (September 2020)
Why iBio Stock Could Soar 500% Above Its Current Levels - Investor Palace (May 2020)
iBio Stock Is Trading Higher After Announcing Next-Gen COVID-19 Vaccine Candidate - Vandana Singh of Benzinga (May 7th, 2021)
Structure, Function, and Evolution of Coronavirus Spike Proteins - National Institute of Health (September 2016)
Biden Administration Issues New Executive Orders To Address COVID-19 - Husch Blackwell (January 2021)
Improving Pandemic Preparedness: Lessons From COVID-19 - Council on Foreign Relations (October 2020)
6 Exciting 3D Printed Organs & 3D Bioprinting Projects - 3D Sourced (February 2021)
3D-printed organs could save lives by addressing the transplant shortage - The Conversation (April 2021)