AntoXa

Life-saving biodefense solutions

U.S. Patent Granted for Made-in-Canada Ricin Antibody Technology

GUELPH, Ont., CANADA, Feb. 27, 2023 — The U.S. Patent Office has granted a patent for a plant-based manufacturing process to produce an antibody for treatment of ricin exposure, an outcome of research and development by AntoXa Corporation under contract with Defence Research & Development Canada (DRDC), an Agency of the Canadian Department of National Defence.

AntoXa, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Canadian biopharmaceutical company PlantForm Corporation, has an exclusive license from DRDC to develop and produce the PhD9 monoclonal antibody treatment in plants for sale in markets worldwide. The process has received United States Patent No. 11,447,789, issued to His Majesty the King in Right of Canada as represented by the Minister of National Defence.

“Our plant-based, made-in-Canada manufacturing platform uniquely addresses the critical need for cost-effective, large-scale production of antidotes for ricin and other potential bioterrorism threats,” said Dr. Don Stewart, PlantForm President and CEO. “Safety and efficacy studies showed therapeutic efficacy against ricin intoxication and validate the capability of our proprietary vivoXPRESS® manufacturing platform to produce a best-in-class antibody treatment for ricin exposure.”

Ricin, a naturally occurring protein from the castor-bean plant, Ricinus communis, is extremely toxic to humans when inhaled or injected. It is listed as a Category B threat agent by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention due to its ease of production, worldwide availability, relative stability and extreme lethality. There is currently no approved antidote against ricin poisoning. It acts very quickly and leaves a short window for administering therapeutic antibodies.

The PhD9 antibody drug candidate prevents ricin from penetrating cells. The PhD9 anti-ricin antibody was developed, in part, through a collaborative effort by the Medical Countermeasure Consortium (MCMC) under the Chemical, Biological and Radiological Memorandum of Understanding (CBR MOU), which includes Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States of America.

Next steps for the commercialization of PhD9 are to manufacture a GMP lot for further pre-clinical studies and a Phase 1 human clinical trial, which is dependent on raising the necessary funds for scale up and other activities necessary to obtain regulatory approvals, Stewart said. Medical countermeasures do not require Phase 2 and Phase 3 human efficacy trials for ethical reasons, therefore the path to regulatory approval is shorter than for other pharmaceuticals.

About AntoXa Corporation (www.antoxacorp.com)

AntoXa Corporation, a wholly-owned subsidiary of PlantForm Corporation, is developing medical countermeasures to protect military and civilian personnel from biological and chemical agents, as well as outbreaks of naturally occurring infectious diseases. The company’s pipeline includes countermeasures for ricin, sarin, soman and Ebola Sudan, as well as other defence-related therapeutics.

About PlantForm Corporation (www.plantformcorp.com)
PlantForm Corporation is a biopharmaceutical company focused on the ultra-low-cost production of specialty antibody and protein drugs and vaccines using the proprietary vivoXPRESS® plant-based manufacturing platform. The vivoXPRESS plant expression system reduces biologic drug production costs by as much as 90% compared to standard mammalian cell systems. The platform is fast (drug production in as little as six weeks), versatile and easily scalable. PlantForm’s pipeline features an innovative antidote to ricin exposure, and biosimilar versions of the brand name biologic drugs Keytruda® and Lucentis®. Learn more.

-end-

For more information, please contact:

Don Stewart, CEO
[email protected]
+1 416-452-7242		Stacey Curry Gunn, Director of Communications [email protected]
+1 519-827-1131

AntoXa Corporation awarded contract extension with federal government to develop plant-made protein for potential coronavirus therapy

DRDC-funded project aims to develop recombinant human angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) as a potential drug candidate for COVID-19

GUELPH, Ontario, Canada, August 17, 2021 — Canadian biopharmaceutical company AntoXa Corporation has been awarded a contract extension from the Government of Canada that includes development of plant-made recombinant human angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) as a potential coronavirus treatment.

Under the terms of the amended contract with Defence Research and Development Canada (DRDC), AntoXa will also continue development of plant-made butyrylcholinesterase (BuChE), a protein that protects against toxic nerve agents. DRDC exercised an option to extend the contract to March 31, 2022, increasing the total value of the projects up to $828,712.38 over three years. 

“We’re very pleased to continue our collaboration with DRDC to address the critical need for cost-effective, large-scale production of tools like ACE2 to aid Canada’s response to the global COVID-19 pandemic,” said Ashley Meyers, AntoXa’s President and Chief Operating Officer.

Researchers are interested in ACE2 as it is the SARS-CoV-2 receptor, providing the entry point for the virus to infect cells. ACE2 could be used to target SARS-CoV-2 by blocking the spike protein from attaching to healthy cells, making it a potential candidate for prophylactic use or for use in the very early stages of COVID infection.

“Perhaps the most exciting thing about ACE2 is that it’s variant-agnostic, which means it could be effective against all of the variants of concern in the current pandemic,” Meyers said.

The DRDC funds will support work to provide the initial proof of concept to test ACE2 effectiveness against SARS-CoV-2 in the lab. The researchers will express, purify and characterize two ACE2 candidates using the tobacco-plant-based vivoXPRESS® manufacturing platform developed by PlantForm Corporation, AntoXa’s parent company.

The funds will also advance AntoXa’s efforts to evaluate multiple plant-made BuChE candidates towards the development of an enhanced nerve agent medical countermeasure capability.

BuChE is a naturally occurring enzyme present in human blood plasma that acts as a bioscavenger by binding and inactivating nerve agents and protecting against nerve agent exposure. The vivoXPRESS platform offers a plant-based economical production platform for BuChE and other proteins of interest, including ACE2, that can be scaled up rapidly.

The project builds upon previous collaborations between DRDC, PlantForm and University of Alberta scientist Dr. Warren Wakarchuk as well as other BuChE work supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC).

“Results of this project will further validate our approach as we develop the next generation of BuChE and other protein drugs to combat bioterrorism and infectious diseases,” said Meyers.

About AntoXa Corporation (www.antoxacorp.com)

AntoXa Corporation is a Canadian biopharmaceutical company developing medical countermeasures to protect military and civilian personnel from biological and chemical agents, as well as outbreaks of naturally occurring infectious diseases.

A wholly-owned subsidiary of PlantForm Corporation, AntoXa holds an exclusive licence to the vivoXPRESS® biopharmaceutical manufacturing platform.

-end-

For more information, please contact:

Ashley J. Meyers
President and COO, AntoXa Corp.
[email protected]
+905-852-0850

Stacey Curry Gunn
Director of Communications, AntoXa Corp.
[email protected]
+1 519-827-1131

AntoXa awarded federal government contract for anti-nerve agent enzyme

GUELPH, Ontario, Canada, March 20, 2019 — AntoXa Corporation has been awarded a contract with the Government of Canada to continue work on production of plant-made butyrylcholinesterase (BuChE), a protein that provides protection against toxic nerve agents such as sarin and soman.

The one-year contract, worth up to $329,395, with a possible extension for two more years, advances earlier collaboration between Defence Research and Development Canada (DRDC) and AntoXa’s parent company, PlantForm Corporation, and Drs. Warren Wakarchuk of Ryerson University and Alisdair Boraston of the University of Victoria.

The project will focus on evaluating multiple BuChE drug candidates and continue to develop and optimize the manufacturing process using PlantForm’s rapid, low-cost tobacco-plant-based vivoXPRESS® technology, said Ashley Meyers, AntoXa’s President and Chief Operating Officer.

“We’re pleased to continue our longstanding collaboration on BuChE with DRDC. The funding validates our medical countermeasures and highlights the growing need for an antidote to nerve agent exposure,” Meyers said.

“Events like the attempted assassination in Salisbury, England in 2018 and the repeated use of nerve agents in Syria underline the importance of our work to develop new approaches to protect against chemical terrorism agents.”

The contract brings the total value of contracts for the creation of stable glyco-modified Nicotiana benthamiana plant lines for the production of pharmaceutical proteins, and continued supply of recombinant butyrylcholinesterase (BuChE) to DRDC, to nearly $1.3 million.

About AntoXa Corporation (www.antoxacorp.com)

AntoXa Corporation is a Canadian biopharmaceutical company developing medical countermeasures to protect military and civilian personnel from biological and chemical agents, as well as outbreaks of naturally occurring infectious diseases.

A wholly-owned subsidiary of PlantForm Corporation, AntoXa holds an exclusive licence to the vivoXPRESS® biopharmaceutical manufacturing platform to produce countermeasures for ricin, sarin, soman and Ebola Sudan, as well as other defence-related therapeutics.

vivoXPRESS® technology uses genetically engineered tobacco plants to produce biopharmaceuticals in less than six weeks at a significantly lower cost of goods compared to industry standard fermentation systems.

– end –

For more information, please contact:

Ashley J. Meyers
President and COO, AntoXa Corp.
[email protected]
+905-852-0850

Stacey Curry Gunn
Director of Communications, AntoXa Corp.
[email protected]
+1 519-827-1131

Ashley J. Meyers appointed President and COO of AntoXa Corporation

Guelph, Ont., Canada, Dec. 20, 2018 — AntoXa Corporation announced today that Ms. Ashley J. Meyers has been appointed President and Chief Operating Officer (COO).

Ashley J. Meyers, President and COO of AntoXa Corporation.

Ms. Meyers has been a member of the Canadian biopharmaceutical company’s leadership team since the company’s inception. She brings more than 10 years of experience in drug research and development with a focus on recombinant proteins and production of these products for pre-clinical trials.

“We’re very pleased that Ashley will be taking the reins to lead AntoXa through the company’s next stage of growth and development,” said Dr. Don Stewart, AntoXa’s CEO and founding president. “She has been leading our medical countermeasures research and development programs since 2012 and has secured more than $2.2 million towards advancing these programs.”

Ms. Meyers will continue work to develop three key assets:

  • PhD9 anti-ricin antibody
  • BuChE, a countermeasure for sarin and soman nerve agents
  • biosimilar Herceptin to treat trauma in military personnel and civilians

In April, AntoXa was granted a license from Defence Research & Development Canada (DRDC), an agency of the Canadian Department of National Defence, to develop and produce an anti-ricin monoclonal antibody for sale in markets worldwide.

“Ashley’s leadership and expertise will be an important asset as AntoXa continues to build partnerships with investors and government agencies to bring these important drugs to market,” Stewart said.

Ms. Meyers completed a M.Sc. degree in protein engineering in plants from the University of Guelph under the supervision of Dr. J.Christopher Hall, PlantForm’s co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer and a member of the AntoXa Board of Directors. In addition to her work with AntoXa, she has over five years of experience as a project manager for government-funded contracts for PlantForm Corporation and is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP).

About AntoXa Corporation (www.antoxacorp.com)

AntoXa Corporation is a Canadian biopharmaceutical company developing medical countermeasures to protect military and civilian personnel from biological and chemical agents, as well as outbreaks of naturally occurring infectious diseases.

A wholly-owned subsidiary of PlantForm Corporation, AntoXa holds an exclusive licence to the vivoXPRESS® biopharmaceutical manufacturing platform to produce countermeasures for ricin, sarin, soman and Ebola Sudan, as well as other defence-related therapeutics.

vivoXPRESS® technology uses genetically engineered tobacco plants to produce biopharmaceuticals in less than six weeks at a significantly lower cost of goods compared to industry standard fermentation systems.

– end –

For more information, please contact:

Ashley J. Meyers
President and COO, AntoXa Corp.
[email protected].com
+905-852-0850

Stacey Curry Gunn
Director of Communications, AntoXa Corp.
[email protected]
+1 519-827-1131

Ron Hosking appointed to AntoXa Corporation Board of Directors

Guelph, Ont., Canada, Nov. 28, 2018 — Ron Hosking, CPA, CA, has been appointed to the AntoXa Corporation Board of Directors, effective immediately.

Mr. Hosking is a chartered accountant with three decades of experience as a financial manager in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries. He is also Chief Financial Officer and a founder of PlantForm Corporation.

The appointment follows the death of James M. Rae in early November 2018. Mr. Rae served on the AntoXa Board of Directors since the company’s inception as a subsidiary of PlantForm Corporation. He also served for several years on PlantForm’s Board of Directors.

“We are deeply saddened by Jim’s passing,” said Don Stewart, CEO of AntoXa and PlantForm Corporation. “He will be greatly missed as a friend and colleague who made significant contributions to both PlantForm and AntoXa through his strategic counsel and years of experience in the pharmaceutical and biotech industries. His vision provided the impetus for establishing AntoXa as a subsidiary focused on medical countermeasures to biological and chemical threats, a legacy that will help make the world a safer place.”

– end –

For more information,

Don Stewart
CEO, AntoXa Corporation
[email protected]
+416-452-7242

Stacey Curry Gunn
Director of Communications, AntoXa Corp.
[email protected]
+1 519-827-1131

About Us

Plant-made biopharmaceuticals for a safer world. AntoXa Corporation is a Canadian biopharmaceutical company developing medical countermeasures to protect military and civilian personnel from biological and chemical agents that might be used in terrorist attacks, as well as outbreaks of naturally ...
Read more >

Subscribe to our Newsletter

vivoXPRESS® MANUFACTURING SYSTEM
The plant-based vivoXPRESS® manufacturing platform offers several advantages over the mammalian and bacterial cell culture systems used to produce most recombinant protein pharmaceuticals. Here’s how it works.

BioPharming Info Centre

Biopharming, also known as plant molecular farming, refers to the use of genetically modified plants to produce a wide range of pharmaceuticals and industrial products. See our Biopharming Info Centre to Learn more about the science and history of using plants to produce complex therapeutic proteins.