With an aim of using collaboration to create advanced biologics for biopharmaceutical companies in a quicker, less expensive way than is currently done, the Pennington Biomedical Research Center at LSU and four other Southern research organizations announced today a new private-public partnership called the Southern Biologics Network.
One of the four other partnering agencies also calls Baton Rouge home. ProteoVec Inc., a privately held biotechnology company, is based here and also has offices in Raleigh, North Carolina. The four other agencies are: Southern Research Institute in Birmingham; The Center for Structural Biology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham; and Soluble Therapeutics Inc., also based in Birmingham.
Biologics are genetically engineered proteins from plant, animal and human cells. They’re used to create therapeutics, vaccines, diagnostics and drug targets to treat and prevent diseases, as well as assist in drug discovery.
The SBN is the first organization in the Southeast to provide comprehensive biologic development services, the participants say in a news release issued today.
“Pharmaceutical companies will be able to save time and money because they’ll be able to select one organization, SBN, instead of trying to coordinate the work of several biopharmaceutical research firms for the manufacture, discovery, preclinical development and early-stage clinical development of biologics,” reads the news release, which includes more details on today’s announcement.
