Mapp Biopharmaceutical has contracted Avid Bioservices, a biologics contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO), to provide process transfer, scale-up and clinical manufacturing services to support one of its development programs for a novel antiviral drug candidate. Avid and Mapp will immediately commence the initial phase of the project.
 
“We are extremely delighted and honored that Mapp Biopharmaceutical contracted Avid Bioservices as their CDMO to support the company’s antiviral program. Today, we are all too familiar with viral outbreaks and, as part of the scientific community, we are proud to leverage our expertise to support the prevention and treatment of challenging viruses,” said Timothy Compton, chief commercial officer, Avid. “This agreement with Mapp Biopharmaceutical provides further evidence of the significant momentum that Avid’s business development team continues to generate toward our dual goals of revenue growth and customer base diversification. We are pleased to add Mapp to our growing list of customers. We are eager to get to work so that we can efficiently move toward CGMP manufacturing runs that will support Mapp’s advancement of their product into clinical studies.”
 
Ron Aimes, vice president of preclinical/nonclinical development and the program principal investigator for Mapp, said, “Mapp is happy to partner with Avid Bioservices to advance the development of our antiviral program towards IND and first in human evaluation. Avid’s more than 20 years of experience in biologics manufacturing, positive track record with regulatory agencies, extensive capabilities, and manufacturing capacity will help us make this medical countermeasure available for the U.S. as well as patients around the globe quickly, safely, and efficiently.”