On Jun. 24, 2020, a team of scientists at Texas A&M University announced it is working with iBio on two COVID-19 vaccine candidates that could be mass produced quickly in modified tobacco plants. iBio Inc. is based in New York City. It has a 130,000 square-foot production facility near the Texas A&M campus.

iBio produces its two COVID-19 vaccine candidates in modified tobacco leaves using a plant-based growing system it calls “FastPharming.” The company said its system can produce vaccine doses at mass commercial scale more quickly than other methods.

The building was constructed in 2010 with funding from the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. It was part of the ‘Blue Angel’ initiative to help with rapid response to future outbreaks following the 2009 H1N1 flu pandemic, which infected 61 million people and caused an estimated 12,469 deaths in the U.S.