The Truth About iBio's Role In Ebola Drug Production

Summary

• iBio NEVER confirmed in a straight-forward fashion that it's involved in the Ebola drug production.
• The license agreement with Caliber is for an "oncology indication".
• iBio plays no role in Ebola drug ZMAPP's production.

iBIO (NYSE:IBIO) spiked nearly 70% after the "U.S. requests production plans for Ebola drug ZMapp" news broke in the early afternoon on Friday. The news reported that government officials have asked "three advanced biology laboratories to submit plans for producing the experimental Ebola drug ZMapp." These three labs are: Texas A&M Health Science Center, Emergent Biosolutions in Baltimore, and another center in Holly Springs, North Carolina, led by Swiss drug company Novartis AG. iBio was never mentioned as one of the production centers, or a partner of the centers. You may wonder why iBIO shares are up so much. It turns out that iBio is only remotely related to a subcontractor of one of the three centers, the Texas center. If Texas center wins the government contract, said Dr. Brett Giroir, chief executive officer of Texas A&M Health Science Center, it would likely tap Caliber Biotherapeutics as a subcontractor. iBio entered into a license agreement with Caliber in Feb 2013. So the question is, is iBio directly involved in the Ebola drug production? On last Thursday, iBio issued an ambiguous press release responding to inquiries about its role in emergency response to Ebola virus. All iBio said in the press release can be summarized into below three points:

1). iBio has an on-going relationship with Caliber;

2). iBio reiterated its self-claim that plant-based production may be superior to animal-based antibody production;

3). iBio "offered" to help US government.

iBio NEVER confirmed in a straightforward fashion that it's involved in the Ebola drug production. Why? It's because iBIO has never been involved. Based on the company's 10-K, the license to Caliber is for use of the iBioLaunch in connection with the development of an antibbody-based protein for an "oncology indication":

If the story gets convoluted for the readers, the below diagram should help sort out all the relationship.

If iBio management has any dignity, it should just tell investors what Protalix (another plant-based therapeutic proteins producer) CEO Dr. David Aviezer said, "We have no information about the drug, no connection with the manufacturers. We also have no genetic information about the drug or the rights to use it."

Analyst’s Disclosure: The author has no positions in any stocks mentioned, and no plans to initiate any positions within the next 72 hours. The author wrote this article themselves, and it expresses their own opinions. The author is not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). The author has no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.

Comments

[Probio Invest]

IBIO: A Wannabe Ebola Player Infecting Buyers with False Hope http://bit.ly/1ynRNXw

[CommonCents14]

A lot of bagholders ITT.

[legalizeMJ]

LOOK WHAT I FOUND: (Not an "oncology indication" as the SA author said).
"IBIO and Caliber establish License and Collaboration Relationship" (2/19/13)
1) Pay attention to the 3rd paragraph.
2) Pay attention to the 6th paragraph (Revenues, royalties, MONEY and these makes IBIO stock go up to the moon).
http://bit.ly/1roOJDu

IBIO plays an important role in the Ebola drug ZMapp.
The US is waiting for Ebola drug ZMapp. AFRICA, other countries,the whole world
ARE waiting for Ebola drug ZMapp, too.
Therefore, IBIO stock will continue its upward trend.
IBIO = $11.0 alone on short covering.

[legalizeMJ]

IBIO is a good Ebola stock to buy.
The Ebola crisis is far from over.

[legalizeMJ]

@Mukticat,

http://1.usa.gov/1yaWWkh

The effectiveness date is 10/17 (not 10/20 today).
By looking at the 10/17,10/20 vol, one knows that the selling IS DONE.

By the way, this is OLD news because IBIO file with the SEC (10/1) about this
already (IBIO didn't lie).
Again, the selling is DONE (OVER), nothing to worry about.

[Mukticat]

Sorry. You can't sell shares before you file a prospectus. The prospectus was filed today. Let the selling begin.

Also in case you didn't notice ALL the Ebola stocks started selling off last Thurs, continuing through Friday and today. The one exception last week was IBIO. Because of the misconception that IBIO might be involved in the bidding to develop an ebola vaccine the stock shot up huge on Friday. But the trend was already there; the ebola selloff had begun. Since the weekend only brought good news on the ebola front such as the end of quarantine in Dallas (ie- bad news for ebola investors) ALL the Ebola stocks sold off again today, this time IBIO included.

The fact that IBIO was down 32% today while the other ebolas were only down around 15 - 20% was just a case of IBIO catching up to the pack.

And once again the amateurs get hosed chasing momentum stocks.

[legalizeMJ]

@Mukticat.
http://1.usa.gov/1yaWWkh
"became effective to sell today (10/20") is a false and misleading statement.
The above SEC link shows that :"the effectiveness date" is 10/17 (which is last Friday when IBIO was traded with a very large vol).
As of today (8PM EDT,10/17), (By looking at the trading vol on 10/17,10/20) I strongly believe that the selling of the 23,418,172 shares is DONE (no more selling).
Please note that, this is the OLD story because IBIO filed with the SEC (10/1) already
about the selling of its 23,418,172 shares.(IBIO didn't lie).

I believe that IBIO is going up higher because
1) IBIO plays an important role in Ebola drug ZMapp's production.
2)If you watch the Ebola news, you'll know that :The Ebola crisis is far from over.
The US needs the Ebola drug ZMapp. AFRICA, other countries, the whole world are also waiting for the Ebola drug ZMapp.
Therefore, IBIO is a strong BUY, imo.

[legalizeMJ]

@Mulkticat. The story has 2 sides. And here is my side of the story.
"effective to sell TODAY (10/20)" is a false and misleading statement.
EFFECTIVENESS DATE IS OCT 17,14 which is last Friday. As of today (10/20), the selling of the 23,418,172 shares is DONE (no more selling).
http://1.usa.gov/1yaWWkh
THIS IS AN OLD STORY, IBIO already INFORMED (filed with the SEC) about the selling
of its 23,418,173 shares on OCT 1,14 (IBIO didn't lie).
"You're gonna lose it all" is a RUDE, MEAN statement. Try to be nice.
You can write your opinion, I can write mine because this is the USA and we do have freedom.
The selling was done. Therefore, IBIO continues its upward trend. IBIO is a BUY.
Your IBIO trash is now my IBIO GOLD.
Sincerely,

[Mukticat]

Legalize you must think this is the Yahoo! Swampboards where everyone spams all the time with repetitious no-content messages. Here at SA we actually debate things instead of posting with ALL CAPS and lots of !!!.

Regarding IBIO they sold 23,000,000 shares to Aspire for pennies and now Aspire has filed the necessary prospectus today to begin selling them. They have millions of dollars in profits at today's prices so the bloodbath you saw was just the beginning. The market still has tens of millions of shares to absorb.

http://1.usa.gov/ZM4BcV

As for IBIO actually getting some business? That's the longest shot around.

[Amit Ghate]

LOL at the Yahoo! comment. (I guess people there buy an extra 100 shares for every capital letter they see.) FWIW though, I don't think IBIO has sold those shares yet. The S1 which just became effective allows them to sell up to 300K shares/day going forward with a $10M cap on total sales. It will definitely result in dilution, as will the options and warrants, but it's not all out there yet.

[legalizeMJ]

IBIO

[biotechmann]

Caliber license with IBIO is product by product. Oncology was just the first! So little this author knows of IBIO. He did not even mention the 40 million the department of Defense committed and 17 of it went for IBIO pilot plant. The Gates Foundation has made over 30 million also in grants.

[norjud]

Africa: Ebola pt. let me see your medical insurance card so we can bill you $5,000 for this drug...NOT!

[User667]

The facts....................

Connect the dots..... G-Con LLC owns Caliber and has and agreement with $IBIO

http://bit.ly/1wrq47A

http://bit.ly/1wrq5IO

According to Caliber, at commercial scale their facility can produce 100 million doses of H1N1 PMP product in 16-20 weeks, whereas similar tank-based bioreactor systems can take 6-9 months to produce the same quantity.

http://reut.rs/1wrq5IS

Texas A&M's facility and the other two centers are required to develop the capacity to produce 50 million doses of pandemic influenza vaccine within four months

[legalizeMJ]

SAD BREAKING NEWS! SAD BREAKING NEWS!
http://bit.ly/1ybnBNW

GOOD NEWS is that IBIO is helping the US government and the world in producing
the Ebola drug ZMapp for the US and the whole world.

http://bit.ly/1wUFrDD

IBIO is a strong BUY, imo.

[legalizeMJ]

http://bit.ly/1wUFrDD

IBIO is a strong BUY, imo.

[legalizeMJ]

BREAKING NEWS! BREAKING NEWS!
http://bit.ly/1ybnBNW

The ABOVE news is telling us that: "The Ebola crisis is FAR FROM OVER. The Ebola
crisis is just the BEGINNING, in the US, AFRICA and around the world".

THEREFORE, IBIO is a BUY, a VERY STRONG BUY. imo.

[legalizeMJ]

Ebola NEWS (right now). Ebola breaking NEWS!

http://bit.ly/1ybnBNW

The ABOVE news is telling us that: "Ebola crisis is just the beginning. Ebola crisis is FAR FROM OVER."

THEREFORE, IBIO is a strong BUY.

[BuyersStrikeWP]

IBIO has a small license deal with Caliber for an oncology drug because one of the Caliber execs worked with one of the IBIO execs when they drove LSBCQ into the ground.

There are MANY companies that have plant-based biotech production capabilities independent of IBIO.

And there are many companies with experience in more traditional MAB production, like Amgen.

IBIO is just a penny stock promotion.

[Stevod2u]

Additionally, from the same PR disclosure find the following:

"The new relationship establishes a turn-key plant-based biopharmaceutical development capability, from the earliest stage of product selection and optimization through large-scale production. iBio and Caliber will use their combined capabilities for their own product portfolios, starting with an undisclosed monoclonal antibody for oncology indications, where Caliber and its affiliates have demonstrated expertise. The Companies also will make their combined capabilities available to third parties through licensing and partnering arrangements for other recombinant plant-based biotherapeutics and vaccines."

This seems to suggest this corroboration between IBIO and Caliber is not limited specifically to an oncology drug but rather inclusive of other products as well. I'm also sure as you state that there are many other companies with plant based capabilities which, in and of itself does NOT eliminate IBIO from participating in the Ebola issue. Thanks

[rchites]

AMGEN technology cost a lot more. Some say 90% more then the plant based technologies, PLANTIBODIES. Get used to seeing IBIO. Amgen passes their cost down to the drugs and shareholders. What will Amgen do as Plantibodies replace many of the big pharma drugs? GATES and Zuckenberg are bringing cheap vaccines to the masses and big pharma best get used to it. God bless.

[rchites]

Big pharma best get used to it. The IBIO platform works. Its a revolution, disruptive the big boys, and its game changing as NOV 10 will show you. Amgen is the older ,costly animal method. Most the task will go to the original ZMapp method, Plantibodies. IBIO

[Stevod2u]

As stated in the IBIO press release from Feb. 2013 is the following reference:

"Dr. Rahul Singhvi, Managing Director of Caliber Biotherapeutics, stated: "This new collaboration with iBio enables us to develop products addressing important unmet medical needs that uniquely benefit from Nicotiana benthamiana plant-based expression technology."

Just based upon my own limited research it would suggest that their partnership would include Nicotine based plants for production which may relate to the Zmapp. Just my opinion based on limited research. I suggest others more qualified than I am do the same. Thanks

[legalizeMJ]

HERE ARE THE TRUTH:

http://bit.ly/1yb2J9F

http://bit.ly/1wUFrDD

The above 2 links PROVE that SA was wrong.

IBIO is a VERY STRONG BUY.

[legalizeMJ]

LOOK WHAT I FOUND:
The link #1 below PROVES that SA is WRONG.
LINK #1:
http://bit.ly/1yb2J9F

AND the link #1 also PROVES that: DRUG MAKERS need IBIO technology to
produce the Ebola drug ZMapp.

IBIO is a strong buy.
Dear Mr.SA, Cover your short positions NOW before you go bankrupt.
Why ? Just look at the link above and you know Why you have to cover your
short positions.

IBIO is a BUY now.
Ebola crisis is jut the beginning. IBIO will go up high and then higher in the weeks and the months ahead.
BUY, BUY, BUY.
And the shorts will go bankrupt.

[legalizeMJ]

Here is the truth:
http://bit.ly/1wUFrDD

IBIO is a very strong BUY.

[Mukticat]

LegalizeMJ take another puff and chillax! IBIO is going down because they sold massive amounts of convertible shares at pennies that became effective to sell today.

http://1.usa.gov/1yaWWkh

You're gonna lose it all anyway so maybe you don't have to spam the board every two minutes.

[Stevod2u]

The company registered shares to an investor and the S-1 is effective today - the sale of shares has not occurred today. Also, it is the company's discretion as to when, if ever they sale the registered shares to the investor - Aspire Capital. In other words, the risk of dilution exists but it is unclear if the company will choose to issue. Time will tell.

[rchites]

read Huebnor and cover