Award from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will support development of deployable “right-sized” manufacturing systems for production of vaccine components
HINGHAM, MA, FEBRUARY 1, 2021 — Sunflower Therapeutics, a public benefit corporation focused on improving access to biologic medicines for patients worldwide, announced that it was granted a second phase of funding to support an existing award made by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to further the foundation’s charitable purpose of improving global health. This award will support the development of a laboratory-scale, deployable manufacturing system and will culminate in the demonstrated production of a protein subunit for a COVID-19 vaccine candidate later this year.
The current grant between Sunflower and the foundation was awarded in November 2019 to support a 19-month effort to develop and demonstrate a bench-top, modular, recombinant protein manufacturing system. In December 2020, Sunflower completed key transition milestones enabling further development of the DaisyTM manufacturing system prototype. Sunflower believes that distributed, small footprint, efficient protein manufacturing systems can increase the accessibility of health and wellness products to the global poor by enabling regional access, while reducing traditional time and costs associated with large-scale manufacturing.
“Sunflower is excited about this continued funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for the development and demonstration of our DaisyTM prototype“, said Sunflower’s Senior Technical Program Manager, Alexandra Bonnyman. “We believe that the DaisyTM prototype represents a novel approach that could support low- and middle-income countries in the discovery, development and manufacturing of protein-based biologics. These capabilities would equip regional ecosystems to address aspects of their own healthcare needs and could further democratize supply of protein-based drugs and vaccines.”
About Sunflower Therapeutics
Sunflower Therapeutics, PBC is a unique biotech company with a mission to enable more medicines to reach patients worldwide. Our goal is to transform access to biologic medicines for patients worldwide by creating novel technologies for development and manufacturing with the whole global community in mind. Using our core technologies–an efficient host, data-driven methods for process development, and novel manufacturing facilities–our team aims to create efficient, fast and less costly cycles of development and production for many new innovative patient-focused products. Sunflower’s research labs are currently located at LabCentral in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Contact:
Sunflower Therapeutics PBC
Kerry R. Love
CEO/President
info@sunflowertx.com