April 29 - Genencor International today announced a grant from the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to develop a process for rapid manufacture of emergency pharmaceuticals to defend against biological agents.

The process will be based on Genencor's technology for large-scale manufacture of monoclonal antibodies in fungal systems which can, theoretically, be used to mass produce a number of newly identified vaccine or therapeutic candidates.

The goal is to be able to manufacture 10 million doses of vaccine within two months of identifying the biological agent, the company said.

"We're please to be selected to work on this high priority project," said Michael V. Arbige, Genencor's senior vice president, Technology. "Our expertise in protein engineering and expression systems enables us to produce monoclonal antibodies on a large scale that overcomes many of the problems with traditional cell cultures. We look forward to working with DARPA to make this important goal a reality."

Genencor International, a Danisco company, is an industrial biotechnology company that develops enzymes and bioproducts to improve the performance and reduce the environmental impact of the cleaning, textiles, fuels and chemicals industries.