Progen Pharmaceuticals Ltd (PGL) are pleased to announce that the company’s wholly owned subsidiary PharmaSynth Pty Ltd, a contract biopharmaceuticals manufacturing organisation, has secured a new contract with Hunter Immunology Limited. While the details of this agreement are confidential this new contract further validates PharmaSynth Pty Ltd as an important Australian based contract manufacturer with expertise in recombinant proteins, bacterial and viral vaccines, whole cell therapeutics and small molecule synthesis.
Hunter Immunology Ltd is a late stage biopharmaceutical company focused on respiratory markets. Its lead product, HI-164OV is an orally-administered immunotherapeutic aimed at reducing the number and severity of acute bronchitis in moderate to severe COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease). “This new contract continues our good relationship with PharmaSynth which successfully produced material for our Phase IIa trial and will provide the active ingredient for our forthcoming Phase IIb trial” said Dr Kevin Healey, Managing Director of Hunter Immunology Ltd.
“”We are pleased that our team at PharmaSynth Pty Ltd has been able to secure this important contract. We look forward to further collaborations with other Australian biopharmaceutical companies and with the recent changes to the R&D Tax credit there are now even more incentives in place for PharmaSynth to work with other companies ” said Sue MacLeman, Chief Executive Officer, Progen Pharmaceuticals Ltd and Managing Director PharmaSynth Pty Ltd.
PharmaSynth has also been engaged to assist in the manufacture of Progen’s new clinical candidate PG545 for a Phase 1 trial expected to start later this year. As part of this, PharmaSynth is expanding its small molecule synthesis capabilities with the purchase of a pilot scale glass reactor train and the installation of a small fill and finish suite to manufacture sterile lyophilised vials.
Les Tillack, PharmaSynth’s CEO said that “This increase in our small molecule synthesis capabilities allows us to actively pursue the early phase synthetic molecule market which we see as an actively growing sector of the Biotech industry. This combined with over 15 years of experience in biopharmaceuticals allows us to potentially service most of the biotech projects in Australia and increasingly overseas.”
Tags: Biotechnology, New contract, PGL, Progen Pharmaceuticals
