Grifols’ GigaGen grated expansion of contract with U.S. DOD

GigaGen, and a subsidiary of Grifols, announced the company has been granted an expansion of its contract with the U.S. Department of Defense’s, DOD, Joint Program Executive Office for Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Defense to develop synthetic human antibody treatments for botulinum neurotoxins. The modification, awarded through Army Contracting Command, will expand the value of the agreement to $11.8M. The expanded contract will leverage GigaGen’s novel platform capabilities to rapidly create synthetic human antibodies to protect the warfighter against botulinum neurotoxins A and B and will support advanced development activities including manufacturing and IND-enabling studies to demonstrate improved potency and military utility. “We are very happy to have received this expansion of our initial contract, which affirms DOD’s confidence in our technology and approach and its commitment to support the development of the BoNT hyperimmune product through clinical development,” said Carter Keller, a senior vice president at Grifols and head of GigaGen. “We are proud of this partnership which will further support the development of our pipeline and platform capabilities and will contribute to the development of key therapeutics against high-priority pathogens.”