Omni Bio Pharmaceutical, Inc. announced that its manufacturing partners, Patheon and Sigma-Aldrich Fine Chemicals (SAFC), have successfully identified several high-expression cell lines able to produce Omni Bio's novel recombinant alpha-1 antitrypsin molecule (AAT-Fc) in large enough quantities to be considered commercially viable. This is a highly significant de-risking milestone that enables Omni Bio to move toward IND-enabling toxicology studies with the first and only pharmaceutically feasible recombinant AAT candidate currently in development. Ten candidate cell lines have been selected for further characterization based on their ability to achieve economically attractive AAT-Fc yields.

The best performing cell line is expected to move into manufacturing scale-up activities in early 2015 to support further preclinical investigations and early clinical studies. Having achieved the important value inflection point, Omni Bio also announced that it has engaged Destum Partners, Inc. to assist the company in securing a strategic partner for advancement of AAT-Fc. The company's goal is to license rights to develop and commercialize AAT-Fc, and certain other intellectual property, as a means of infusing Omni Bio with non-dilutive capital to fuel ongoing operating activities.