British American Tobacco (BAT) has announced the creation of a new biotech company called KBio Holdings Limited (KBio) to accelerate the development of existing plant-based technology, according to a company press release.

The new company has been set up to speed up research, development and production of novel treatments and support the existing plant-based technology capabilities of BAT and its US-based plant biologics organisation Kentucky BioProcessing Inc (KBP). According to BAT’s press release, KBio will focus on delivering treatments for rare and infectious diseases by realising and expanding the potential of both the plant-based technology platform, as well as its existing clinical and pre-clinical vaccines and antibody pipeline.
KBio has been set up as a standalone operational structure with a new executive leadership team fronted by Patrick Doyle as Chief Executive Officer.
“I am confident in the potential of KBio’s powerful plant-based platform, capabilities and emerging early-stage pipeline. To-date, the technology has demonstrated its ability to produce novel antibody and vaccine candidates with high purity at a fraction of the time and cost of current technologies. […] This could enable us to progress to clinical studies faster than industry norms, in the hope of delivering treatment solutions more quickly,” Doyle said.
“Science and innovation are fundamental to BAT and delivering on our purpose of building A Better Tomorrow. We recognise the potential of our innovative plant-based technology and have established KBio to maximise that potential. We are excited to see what the future holds,” said Dr. David O’Reilly, BAT’s Director of Scientific Research.