Medicago, a biotechnology company focused on developing highly effective and competitive vaccines based on proprietary manufacturing technologies and virus-like particles (VLPs), has entered  into a research collaboration agreement with the U.S. Army Medical  Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) for the  development of a plant-based VLP vaccine candidate for the prevention of Ebola. Ebola is a very serious hemorrhagic fever virus for which no licensed treatment or vaccine exists.

"We are currently working on several other important infectious disease  targets outside of influenza," said Louis Vezina, Chief Scientific  Officer of Medicago. "Our expertise in the development of VLP vaccines  using our transient expression system, coupled with USAMRIID's  experience and knowledge creates an ideal combination for the rapid  development of a new generation of efficacious and competitive VLP  vaccines."