ABL News

Advanced BioScience Laboratories Selected as the NHLBI Biologics Manufacturing Facility for New SMARTT Program

  • January 6, 2011

Kensington, MD (January 6, 2011) – Advanced BioScience Laboratories (ABL) has been awarded a contract with the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to manufacture biologics for treatment and prevention of heart, lung, and blood diseases. ABL will serve as the biologics production facility for a new five-year program called Science Moving TowArds Research Translation and Therapy (SMARTT). This designation comes with a baseline funding amount of $9,003,863. ABL’s biologics manufacturing expertise will be used to promote investigator-initiated early phase product development efforts to manufacture research and clinical-grade cGMP biologics in support of IND-enabling studies.

The SMARTT program is a consortium of four facilities with the expertise to bring novel therapeutics from the promising findings in a laboratory setting through appropriate aspects of product development for clinical trials. Investigators of heart, lung, and blood diseases will be able to apply to have their candidate products developed through this program in the appropriate facility. The program is designed to fill a gap and connect academicians with industry to propel clinic-ready products. SMARTT consists of the biologics production facility at ABL, a production facility for non-biologics and small molecules, a pharmacology/toxicology center, and a Coordinating Center.

ABL’s CEO Dr. Thomas VanCott declared, “This is an exceptional opportunity to further build upon our well established commitment to support NIH initiatives by delivering the highest quality cGMP biologics to the NHLBI at our new manufacturing facility.” ABL has been developing vaccines and biologics for over 40 years and is expanding to a new, 72,000 square foot state-of-the-art manufacturing and laboratory facility at the Shady Grove Life Sciences Center in Rockville, Md.

The NHLBI stimulates basic discoveries about the causes of disease, enables the translation of basic discoveries into clinical practice, fosters training and mentoring of emerging scientists and physicians, and communicates research advances to the public. It creates and supports a robust, collaborative research infrastructure in partnership with private and public organizations, including academic institutions, industry, and other government agencies. The Institute collaborates with patients, families, health care professionals, scientists, professional societies, patient advocacy groups, community organizations, and the media to promote the application of research results and leverage resources to address public health needs. The NHLBI also collaborates with international organizations to help reduce the burden of heart, lung, and blood diseases worldwide.

Information for the new SMARTT program is also available on the NHLBI website.

About ABL

Advanced BioScience Laboratories, Inc. (ABL) is a Maryland biomedical contract research organization dedicated to advancing vaccine, microbicide, and therapeutic research. Through decades of experience in virological research, ABL has made major contributions to HIV vaccine research, developing the methods and technology to now allow ABL to broaden its capabilities into research and vaccine development for a wide array of diseases. ABL has extensive experience working with diverse organizations, including various government and commercial entities, and has expertise in discovery and preclinical research and development of biopharmaceuticals. Since 2001 ABL has been a part of the Institut Merieux, a group of four companies dedicated to developing translational science for better patient care globally. Notable services include basic research, product design, process and assay development, preclinical in vivo models (including immunomonitoring), and Phase I/II cGMP biologics manufacturing.

To find out more information about Advanced BioScience Laboratories, Inc., please visit our website at www.ablinc.com.