Ginkgo Bioworks Awarded Project Agreement through BARDA's BioMaP-Consortium

Rhea-AI Summary

Ginkgo Bioworks (NYSE: DNA) was awarded a BARDA BioMaP-Consortium project agreement on November 3, 2025 to develop cost-reducing, scalable domestic biomanufacturing innovations for monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) against filoviruses such as Ebola (EBOV) and Sudan virus (SUDV).

The contract value is up to $22.2 million. Ginkgo will lead a partner team (Advanced BioScience Laboratories, Isolere Bio by Donaldson, NeuImmune, and ProteoNic) to integrate technologies across the mAb production process and to produce an anti-filovirus mAb cocktail (1C3 and 1C11) discovered at Emory University. The project is funded in whole or in part by BARDA/ASPR under OT number 75A50123D00003.

Positive

• Contract value up to $22.2 million
• Target mAb cocktail identified: 1C3 and 1C11
• Consortium partners named and led by Ginkgo for integrated development
• Project date announced on November 3, 2025
• Federal funding via BARDA/ASPR under OT #75A50123D00003

Negative

• None.

Insights

Biomanufacturing Strategist

BARDA awards Ginkgo up to $22.2 million to advance domestic monoclonal antibody manufacturing for anti-filovirus countermeasures.

Ginkgo Bioworks will lead a consortium including Advanced BioScience Laboratories, Isolere Bio by Donaldson, NeuImmune, and ProteoNic to develop end-to-end innovations across mAb process development and production and to produce an anti-filovirus cocktail (1C3 and 1C11) discovered at Emory. The contract value of $22.2 million and the explicit focus on a defined product provide clear, measurable scope for technical development and scale-up.

Key dependencies and risks include successful integration of each partner's platform into a validated manufacturing workflow, regulatory workstreams for a medical countermeasure, and demonstration that the process delivers acceptable quality for the 1C3/1C11 cocktail. The release cites efficacy in nonhuman primates but contains no clinical regulatory milestones; regulatory progress and process validation remain critical unknowns.

Concrete items to watch: delivery milestones and budget drawdowns tied to the BARDA OT #75A50123D00003, any announced process performance metrics (yield, purity, cost per dose), and regulatory or clinical milestones for the 1C3/1C11 cocktail over the next 12–36 months. Also monitor partner technical updates and any published comparators for manufacturing cost reductions.

Ginkgo and Partners to Develop Monoclonal Antibody Biomanufacturing Innovations and to Produce an Anti-Filovirus Medical Countermeasure

BOSTON, Nov. 3, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Ginkgo Bioworks (NYSE: DNA) announced today that it has been awarded a contract through the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority's (BARDA) Biopharmaceutical Manufacturing Preparedness Consortium (BioMaP-Consortium) to develop innovations that strengthen and reduce the costs of domestic biomanufacturing of monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) to protect against and treat infection by filoviruses such as Ebola (EBOV) and Sudan Viruses (SUDV).

The project has a total contract value of up to $22.2 million and seeks to deploy these innovations to produce the anti-filovirus mAbs cocktail of 1C3 and 1C11, discovered and developed by Emory University.

Ginkgo will lead a team composed of Advanced BioScience Laboratories (ABL), Inc., Isolere Bio by Donaldson, NeuImmune, Inc., and ProteoNic BV to develop and integrate innovative technologies that will span the entire process for producing mAb drugs.

"Rapidly scalable and cost-effective manufacturing of mAbs is crucial to our national biosecurity and public health preparedness," said Jennifer Wipf, General Manager of Ginkgo's Discovery & Manufacturing Solutions business unit. "We are honored to work with BARDA and our BioMaP-Consortium partners to bring these and other innovations to the domestic production of mAb-based medical countermeasures. We look forward to working collaboratively with Prof. Rafi Ahmed and his team at Emory University, who have demonstrated that certain mAbs protect nonhuman primates from high-lethality filoviruses such as EBOV and SUDV. Our end goal is to help protect the U.S. population from these high-threat pathogens."

"ABL is proud to collaborate with Ginkgo to provide the product production capabilities in this effort," said Tim Fouts, CSO of ABL. "We believe the team assembled brings together technology that will change the goal posts for how efficacy is defined against infectious diseases."

"Isolere Bio by Donaldson is eager to collaborate with Ginkgo and its team on this important public health program," said Michael Dzuricky, Director of R&D at Isolere Bio by Donaldson. "The goals of this project align perfectly with our life science vision of building innovative bioprocessing solutions that can reduce costs and increase speed of development for essential reagents and medicines."

"Filoviral hemorrhagic fevers continue to be a serious global health risk, with 30–90% mortality, depending on the viral genus," said Thomas Fuerst, Founder and Chairman of NeuImmune. "With our proprietary geCHO BioDesign platform and our deep expertise in precision engineering of biologics with distinct glycosylation signatures, we look forward to collaborating with Ginkgo to advance novel antibodies to treat these devastating viral infections."

"ProteoNic is proud to contribute its premium 2G UNic® vector and transposon technologies to this important collaboration. Together with Ginkgo Bioworks and partners, we look forward to developing an efficient, cost-effective production process for these life-saving monoclonal antibodies," said Frank Pieper, CEO of ProteoNic.

This BARDA-supported initiative builds on Ginkgo Bioworks' track record in partnering with the U.S. government to provide ongoing leadership in synthetic biology, biomanufacturing innovation, and national biosecurity preparedness.

This project has been funded in whole or in part with federal funds from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR); Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), under OT number #75A50123D00003.

About Ginkgo Bioworks
Ginkgo Bioworks builds the tools that make biology easier to engineer for everyone. Ginkgo R&D Solutions delivers customizable R&D packages—such as protein engineering, nucleic acid design, and cell-free systems—giving partners a comprehensive way to accelerate innovation across therapeutics, diagnostics, and manufacturing. Ginkgo Automation sells modular, integrated laboratory automation so scientists can spend their days planning and analyzing experiments rather than pipetting in the lab. Ginkgo Datapoints uses Ginkgo's in-house automation to generate the large lab data sets to power your AI models. Ginkgo Biosecurity is building and deploying the next-generation infrastructure and technologies that global leaders need to predict, detect, and respond to a wide variety of biological threats. For more information, visit ginkgobioworks.com and ginkgobiosecurity.com, read our blog, or follow us on social media channels such as X (@Ginkgo and @Ginkgo_Biosec), Instagram (@GinkgoBioworks), Threads (@GinkgoBioworks), or LinkedIn.

GINKGO BIOWORKS INVESTOR CONTACT:
investors@ginkgobioworks.com

GINKGO BIOWORKS MEDIA CONTACT:
press@ginkgobioworks.com

About ABL
Advanced BioScience Laboratories (ABL) is a contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) dedicated to advancing therapeutics, vaccines, and other biological products. With over 60 years of experience working with diverse organizations including industry, government, and academic entities, ABL provides manufacturing capabilities for the development and production of virus-based oncolytic therapies, gene therapies and viral vaccines. GMP facilities are in Rockville, MD with services including bulk drug substance, live virus fill/finish, process, and assay development for clinical products.

For more information, visit ablinc.com.

About Isolere Bio by Donaldson
Isolere Bio by Donaldson is an innovator in biopharmaceutical purification technologies, specializing in streamlined solutions for complex biologics. The company works diligently to enhance the efficiency, purity and cost-effectiveness of biopharmaceutical processes by leveraging cutting-edge materials into next generation solutions. Each product is designed with scalability and sustainability in mind to enable customers to rapidly and reliably commercialize life-saving therapies.

Incorporated in 2017, Isolere Bio became part of Donaldson Company (NYSE: DCI) in early 2023.

For more information, visit isolerebio.com.

About NeuImmune
NeuImmune is a biopharmaceutical company developing innovative vaccines and biopharmaceuticals through precision glycoengineering and delivery of biologics that address important medical and public health needs. The company is committed to providing safe and more effective prophylactic and therapeutic treatments based on its novel biomanufacturing and delivery platforms.

For more information, visit neuimmune.com.

About ProteoNic 
ProteoNic is a privately held biotechnology company with offices in Leiden, The Netherlands. The company specializes in advanced cell line generation and viral vector production, with a focus on improving the yield and efficiency of protein production using its proprietary 2G UNic® vector technology. The company commercializes its proprietary 2G UNic® technology through licensing and partnership arrangements to bring innovative biologics as well as gene therapies.

For more information, visit www.proteonic.nl.

Forward-Looking Statements of Ginkgo Bioworks
This press release contains certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws, including statements regarding the capabilities and potential success of the partnership and Ginkgo's cell programming platform. These forward-looking statements generally are identified by the words "believe," "can," "project," "potential," "expect," "anticipate," "estimate," "intend," "strategy," "future," "opportunity," "plan," "may," "should," "will," "would," "will be," "will continue," "will likely result," and similar expressions. Forward-looking statements are predictions, projections and other statements about future events that are based on current expectations and assumptions and, as a result, are subject to risks and uncertainties. Many factors could cause actual future events to differ materially from the forward-looking statements in this press release, including but not limited to: (i) our ability to realize near-term and long-term cost savings associated with our site consolidation plans, including the ability to terminate leases or find sub-lease tenants for unused facilities, (ii) volatility in the price of Ginkgo's securities due to a variety of factors, including changes in the competitive and highly regulated industries in which Ginkgo operates and plans to operate, variations in performance across competitors, and changes in laws and regulations affecting Ginkgo's business, (iii) the ability to implement business plans, forecasts, and other expectations, and to identify and realize additional business opportunities, including with respect to our solutions and tools offerings, (iv) the risk of downturns in demand for products using synthetic biology, (v) the uncertainty regarding the demand for passive monitoring programs and biosecurity services, (vi) changes to the biosecurity industry, including due to advancements in technology, emerging competition and evolution in industry demands, standards and regulations, (vii) the outcome of any pending or potential legal proceedings against Ginkgo, (viii) our ability to realize the expected benefits from and the success of our Foundry platform programs and Codebase assets, (ix) our ability to successfully develop engineered cells, bioprocesses, data packages or other deliverables, (x) the product development, production or manufacturing success of our customers, (xi) our exposure to the volatility and liquidity risks inherent in holding equity interests in other operating companies and other non-cash consideration we may receive for our services, (xii) the potential negative impact on our business of our restructuring or the failure to realize the anticipated savings associated therewith and (xiii) the uncertainty regarding government budgetary priorities and funding allocated to government agencies. The foregoing list of factors is not exhaustive. You should carefully consider the foregoing factors and the other risks and uncertainties described in the "Risk Factors" section of Ginkgo's annual report on Form 10-K filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC") on February 25, 2025 and other documents filed by Ginkgo from time to time with the SEC. These filings identify and address other important risks and uncertainties that could cause actual events and results to differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made. Readers are cautioned not to put undue reliance on forward-looking statements, and Ginkgo assumes no obligation and does not intend to update or revise these forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. Ginkgo does not give any assurance that it will achieve its expectations.

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SOURCE Ginkgo Bioworks

FAQ

What did Ginkgo announce on November 3, 2025 regarding BARDA and mAb manufacturing?

Ginkgo announced a BARDA BioMaP-Consortium project award to develop scalable, cost-reducing monoclonal antibody manufacturing and produce an anti-filovirus mAb cocktail.

How much funding is Ginkgo receiving for the BARDA BioMaP-Consortium project (NYSE: DNA)?

The project has a total contract value of up to $22.2 million.

Which monoclonal antibodies will Ginkgo aim to produce under the BARDA award?

The effort seeks to produce the anti-filovirus mAb cocktail composed of 1C3 and 1C11 discovered at Emory University.

Who are the named partners working with Ginkgo on the BARDA-funded BioMaP project?

Named partners include Advanced BioScience Laboratories (ABL), Isolere Bio by Donaldson, NeuImmune, and ProteoNic.

What is the public health goal of Ginkgo’s BARDA BioMaP-Consortium project?

The goal is to strengthen U.S. biosecurity by enabling rapid, scalable, and lower-cost domestic production of mAb-based medical countermeasures against filoviruses.

Under which federal award number is Ginkgo’s BARDA project funded?

The project is funded under OT number 75A50123D00003 by BARDA/ASPR.