Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, August 27th, 2010 – IBA (Ion Beam Applications S.A.) announced today that they have entered into an agreement with Bayer Schering Pharma AG, Germany (Bayer) for chemical process development and clinical trial doses supply of FLORBETABEN, a molecular imaging compound in development for the detection of Alzheimer’s Disease pathology. The agreement reinforces the companies’ commitment to developing solutions for the early diagnosis and treatment of life threatening diseases.
Under the terms of the agreement, IBA will manufacture and supply Bayer and their trial partners with doses of the compound FLORBETABEN for clinical trials. IBA will develop a large-scale manufacturing process on Synthera®, its proprietary, multi-purpose automated synthesizer, and upgrade its positron emission tomography (PET) manufacturing network in order to ensure availability of the compound for the clinical trials.
Under the terms of the agreement IBA will receive several million Euros (single-digit) of milestone payments and fees depending on the amount of required doses for the clinical trials.
FLORBETABEN is a PET tracer in-licensed by Bayer, undergoing clinical development for potential use in diagnostic imaging of beta-amyloid deposits in the brain, a hallmark of Alzheimer’s Disease. This neurodegenerative disease affects millions of people each year worldwide, most over the age of 60, and can lead to premature death. There is no cure for Alzheimer’s Disease, but an early and accurate detection using molecular imaging techniques could help enhance patient care throughout the course of the disease’s progression and potentially aid scientists in researching pharmaceutical treatment candidates. The worldwide diagnostic imaging market for Alzheimer’s Disease is expected to reach several hundred million Euros.
“IBA is dedicated to working with leading pharmaceutical partners such as Bayer to develop innovative products in therapeutic areas that are not currently addressed by industry solutions, including molecular imaging tracers for use in neurology,” said Pierre Mottet, CEO of IBA Group. “Our long standing expertise in radiochemistry technology and equipment, combined with our proprietary global PET network, enables us to support the development of, and accelerate the access to new tracers like FLORBETABEN. This collaboration confirms IBA’s capacity and unique position in terms of developing large scale manufacturing, distribution and support solutions for radiopharmaceuticals.”
ABOUT IBA IBA develops and markets leading-edge technologies, pharmaceuticals and tailor-made solutions for healthcare with a focus on cancer diagnosis and therapy. Leveraging on its scientific expertise, IBA is also active in the field of industrial sterilization and ionization. Listed on the pan-European stock exchange EURONEXT, IBA is included in the BelMid Index. (IBA: Reuters IBAB.BR and Bloomberg IBAB.BB). Website: www.iba-worldwide.com
Media contacts: Christina Aplington Ballou PR for IBA +33 – 01 42 22 93 65 christina@balloupr.com
