GigaGen Inc., a biotechnology company advancing transformative antibody drugs for immunodeficiencies, infectious diseases and checkpoint-resistant cancers, has been awarded a contract by the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) valued at up to $135.2 million to develop a recombinant polyclonal antibody therapy for botulinum neurotoxins (BoNT) and a second biothreat of interest to the agency that will be determined at a later time.
 
“We are thrilled to have been awarded this BARDA contract and are proud to continue our collaboration with the U.S. government to advance innovative therapies against naturally emerging and intentional biological threats,” said Carter Keller, senior vice president of Grifols and head of GigaGen. “GigaGen aims to change the way infectious diseases are treated with the world’s only recombinant polyclonal antibody therapeutic platform. Building on our successful collaboration with the Department of Defense (DOD), this project demonstrates the versatility of our recombinant polyclonal antibody platform, which is ideally suited for rapid responses to imminent biological threats.”
 
The BARDA project builds upon GigaGen’s contract awarded by the U.S. DOD Joint Program Executive Office for Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Defense (JPEO-CBRND) in 2022. The DOD project demonstrated the utility of GigaGen’s first-in-class recombinant human polyclonal antibody discovery platform against biological threats, focusing on two BoNT variants. Following success in this program that included in vivo neutralization of the two botulinum neurotoxins, the BARDA project will support the manufacturing and initial clinical development of a drug product that targets all seven BoNT variants. BoNT, one of the most toxic biological substances, is produced by the bacterium Clostridium botulinum and can cause progressive muscle paralysis from the head to the rest of the body, which can be fatal if left untreated.