Kedrion and ProMetic Form Strategic Alliance to Develop Orphan Drugs from Plasma
Kedrion S.p.A. and ProMetic BioTherapeutics, Inc., a subsidiary of ProMetic Life Sciences Inc. have formed a strategic alliance to develop orphan drugs derived from human plasma utilizing ProMetic's proprietary manufacturing process, the Plasma protein purification System (PPPS).
The alliance between the two companies was created to select specific proteins which can be manufactured into drugs that either have received orphan drug designation or have the potential to receive it. High value plasma proteins have long served as therapeutics for a wide variety of disorders including many rare diseases. The PPPS technology, which was co-developed with The American Red Cross, can be applied to the recovery of certain proteins that have established therapeutic value but cannot be extracted effectively via current manufacturing practices, or that are not the focus of large plasma fractionators.
Although the financial details of the alliance were not disclosed, ProMetic and Kedrion will share in the revenue derived from the sales of commercialized therapeutics and will initially target Europe.
PPPS is an application of ProMetic's core technology to extract the most valuable therapeutic proteins from plasma. Each protein is removed from plasma by a specific ProMetic Mimetic Ligand(TM) adsorbent and subsequently purified in a side stream. According to the company, the removal sequence has been optimized to give exceptionally high protein recoveries at unprecedented activity levels. One of the latent and most promising aspects of PPPS technology is its ability to recover additional new proteins that could treat uncommon diseases and thus benefit from orphan drug status.
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