LemnaGene — Company Profile

LemnaGene Espace Florentin 71, chemin du Moulin Carron 69570 Dardilly France Website: http://www.lemnagene.com/

LemnaGene SA, offers a new era in Biomanufacturing.

Created in October 2003, LemnaGene^TM is since July 2005 a fully owned subsidiary of Biolex Therapeutics.

LemnaGene^TM has obtained an ANVAR Grant from the French Research Ministry in 2003.

LemnaGene^TM is based in Lyon, France, the 8th largest economic region in Europe with a high density in Life Science activities.

LemnaGene^TM has signed a Research & Development Agreement with Bayer CropScience, BioScience, to investigate the expression of aprotinin in lemna.

In addition, LemnaGene^TM has secured several agreements with other Industrial Partners in the pharma and human/animal vaccine areas.

Lemna

Lemna is a unique PMP (Plant Made Protein) Platform meeting industrial requirements as well as safety concern. Lemna is a recent option that offers its own advantages compared to other plant species. Belonging to Lemnaceae, Duckweed is a group of small, free-floating, fresh water plants, used as feed and food, mostly in Asian countries. It is also used in North America for waste-water management.

Main Advantages of Lemna for the production of recombinant proteins:

Due to its easy clonal propagation on water containing salts using light and CO₂, Lemna is a choice organism for the production of recombinant proteins. The Weizmann Institute, team of Meir Edelman and Avi Perl have designed unique conditions for the insertion of genes and the growth of Lemna to obtain high protein production.
Lemnaceae thus offer numerous advantages compared to other technologies used for biomanufacturing such as:

• Security and safety, for both the environment (all steps including the production, are done under confined conditions) and for human and animal since there is no risk of viral contamination;
• High productivity due to its rapid growth (doubling time is about two days) and a high protein content (45% of dry weight);
• Flexibility since production can be done during all year around and also production capacity can easily be adapted to the needs;
• Speed from access to the gene to the commercialisation;
• Low costs due to low capital investment and running costs.

Products

LemnaGene^TM is using its technology to produce several types of active ingredients dedicated to different market areas:

• Recombinant proteins for the pharmaceutical and veterinary industry;
• Recombinant vaccines for humans and animals;
• Feed additives such as enzymes or probiotics;
• Enzymes and monoclonal antibodies for diagnostics and laboratory reagents.

The active ingredient produced can be delivered in different formats:

Pure: The active ingredient can be purified and used as drugs or vaccines;

Dry: Lemna can be dried and sold as a powder in the form of capsules or tablets; It can also be sprayed on feed for animals during the formulation process of the feed;

Fresh: Non-transgenic Lemna has been already sold as salads for human consumption and is widely used as animal feed in developing countries.


Source: LemnaGene

Editor's note: LemnaGene does not exist anymore.

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Biolex Therapeutics Acquires LemnaGene S.A. — Further Consolidates Protein Capabilities

PITTSBORO, NC, July 28, 2005 — Biolex Therapeutics, a venture capital-backed, clinical development-stage protein therapeutics company, today announced the acquisition of LemnaGene S.A., a privately-held, French start-up biotechnology company researching potential applications of the small, aquatic plant Lemna to produce recombinant proteins. Biolex’ patented technology platform, The LEX SystemTM, uses Lemna as a transgenic host for the development and manufacture of therapeutic proteins and monoclonal antibodies that are difficult to make (technically or economically) in traditional recombinant expression systems. The LEX System has been successfully employed in Biolex’ GMP biopharmaceutical manufacturing facilities (conforming to U.S. and international regulatory guidelines on current Good Manufacturing Practices), where multiple proteins have been produced for preclinical and clinical development.

"Last year we acquired Epicyte Pharmaceutical, strengthening our technical capabilities and patent position related to plant-based monoclonal antibody production," said Jan Turek, Chief Executive Officer of Biolex. "The acquisition of LemnaGene represents a further consolidation of relevant protein capabilities and will enhance our position as a leader in this space. It is our belief that Biolex is now becoming the first choice for companies seeking a development partner for complex protein therapeutics reflecting our many recent accomplishments."

LemnaGene, based in Lyon, France, provides biomanufacturing services to the pharmaceutical, vaccine, veterinarian, diagnostic, nutraceutical and industrial protein markets. The company has several research agreements with companies in the pharmaceutical and human/animal vaccine areas.

"I am pleased that LemnaGene has joined forces with Biolex," said Georges Freyssinet, Ph.D., former Chief Executive Officer of LemnaGene. "Our research activities and collaborations will fit in well with Biolex’ development expertise and GMP capabilities." Dr. Freyssinet will remain as Director of Research and Development of LemnaGene.

Biolex Therapeutics applies its unique drug development capabilities and expertise to commercialize complex proteins and monoclonal antibodies that until now have been impossible or very expensive to develop through traditional means. The company is advancing a proprietary pipeline of product candidates including Locteron^TM, a novel controlled-release form of alfa interferon which will enter Phase 1 clinical trials in 2005. Biolex has an extensive, multi-protein strategic alliance with Centocor and collaborations with other pharmaceutical/biotech companies including Medarex and OctoPlus. For additional information, please visit Biolex’ web site at www.biolex.com.


Source: LemnaGene

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LemnaGene SA opens its biomanufacturing facility and has produced its first transgenic Spirodela

Lyon, France; September 27, 2004 — LemnaGene SA, a recently founded biomanufacturing company using the aquatic plant Spirodela from the Lemnaceae family, as its production platform, recently opened its new laboratory and biomanufacturing facility in the incubation space for new projects, located at the "Ecole normale supérieure de Lyon" (France) (ENS Lyon). This will allow LemnaGene to provide a full range of biomanufacturing services to the Pharmaceutical, Vaccine, Veterinarian, Diagnostic, Nutraceutical and Industrial Protein markets. LemnaGene SA also announced the production of its first transgenic Spirodela containing genes of interest to industrial partners.

Georges Freyssinet, the CEO of LemnaGene SA commented, "this new facility is a big plus for us. We can now produce efficiently transgenic Spirodela in a very nice environment. In addition, being inside the Ecole normale supérieure de Lyon allows us to work with high level scientific teams and have access to facilities and equipments which will speed up our development".

Michel van der Rest, Research Director at ENS Lyon commented, "The ENS Lyon is developing a clearly defined policy for the technology transfer of its research. With the aim of doing this, we are happy to host LemnaGene in our buildings within the framework of a research collaboration with the team of Thierry Gaude (Laboratoire de Reproduction et Développement des Plantes). LemnaGene will benefit from the expertise of this team and the equipments of this laboratory".

LemnaGene SA has been established in October 2003 in Lyon, France with the support of US and French private investors and a 400,000 Euro grant from the French Ministry of Research, grant managed by ANVAR (Agence Nationale de Valorisation de la Recherche). LemnaGene has received support from Créalys, the incubator from "Rhône-Alpes Ouest", and the Novacité label from the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Lyon.

LemnaGene SA has an exclusive license from the Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel, on know-how and patents developed by Weizmann scientists and has secured several additional licenses on enabling technologies. Agreements have been entered into with three development partners to validate the industrial feasibility of the LemnaGene platform for several genes of commercial interest.


Source: LemnaGene

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