Leiden, The Netherlands, 19 August 2014. Biotech company Pharming Group NV (“Pharming” or “the Company”) (Euronext: PHARM) today announced that through the acquisition of certain assets of Transgenic Rabbit Models SASU (TRM), a private French company in liquidation; for € 0.5 million in cash, it has gained access to five potential new product leads (founder rabbits); recombinant- human (rh)-a-glucosidase for the treatment of Pompe’s disease, rh-a-galactosidase for the treatment of Fabry’s disease, rh-ß-cerebrosidase for the treatment of Gaucher’s disease, rh- Factor VIII for the treatment of Haemophilia-A and rh- Factor IX for the treatment of Haemophilia-B.
In addition, Pharming gained access to transgenic rabbit founder technology and know-how developed by TRM.
Pharming plans to start a small (French) research group to facilitate further optimization of these product leads, the further enhancement of the rabbit founder technology & know-how and for the generation of additional potential future products.
Bruno Giannetti, Pharming’s Chief Operating Officer commented, “Through this acquisition, we have added two important assets; the capability to create rabbit founders as an addition to our FDA and EMA validated technology platform, and, at the same time, a number of product leads. The latter means that we will not only be able to strengthen our Factor VIII project with SIPI by adding an additional source of founder rabbits, but also to accelerate, by possibly as much as two years, our ability to develop additional products in therapeutic areas where our technology platform is particularly efficient -the development of treatments for rare genetic and life-threatening diseases such as Pompe’s, Fabry’s and Gaucher’s disease-. It is these kinds of diseases that require the complex proteins that continue to pose serious technical and cost challenges to cell based production methods. We look forward to start working on the partnered development of a selection of these assets, for which we already have the required financial strength and/or partnership(s) in place”.
Sijmen de Vries, Pharming’s CEO added, “This is a potentially exciting opportunity to gain new assets that could go some way towards fulfilling our vision in developing innovative products for the treatment of unmet medical needs in rare diseases. We look forward to updating the market on the integration and progress with this acquisition.”
Pharming Group NV is developing innovative products for the treatment of unmet medical needs. RUCONEST® (conestat alfa) is a recombinant human C1 esterase inhibitor approved for the treatment of angioedema attacks in patients with HAE in the USA, Israel, all 27 EU countries plus Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein. RUCONEST® is distributed in the EU by Swedish Orphan Biovitrum AB (SS: SOBI). RUCONEST® is partnered with Salix Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: SLXP) in North America. The product is also being evaluated for various follow-on indications. Pharming has a unique GMP compliant, validated platform for the production of recombinant human proteins that has proven capable of producing industrial volumes of high quality recombinant human protein in a more economical way compared to current cell based technologies. In July 2013, the platform was partnered with Shanghai Institute for Pharmaceutical Industry (SIPI), a Sinopharm Company, for joint global development of new products. Pre- clinical development and manufacturing will take place at SIPI and are funded by SIPI. Pharming and SIPI initially plan to utilize this platform for the development of rh-FVIII for the treatment of Haemophilia-A. Additional information is available on the Pharming website; www.pharming.com.
This press release contains forward looking statements that involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from the results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by these forward looking statements.
Contact
Sijmen de Vries, CEO: T: +31 71 524 7400
FTI Consulting
Julia Phillips / John Dineen, T: +44 203 727 1136
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