Pharming and Aslan Group sign License Agreement for Lactoferrin
Pharming to receive significant milestone and royalty payments
Pharming Group NV and Aslan Group A.S. from Istanbul, Turkey announced that they have signed a full licensing agreement to further develop, manufacture and market Pharming's human lactoferrin product (hLF). Earlier in 2008, the companies concluded a commercialization and supply agreement for the marketing and distribution of food or food supplements containing Pharming's hLF.
Under the terms of this new agreement, Aslan will have exclusive rights to produce hLF based on Pharming's transgenic technology and sell nutritional products containing Pharming's lactoferrin in Turkey, the Middle East, UAE, Russia, Ukraine and several other countries in this region with a non-exclusive license to other parts of the world to be selected by Aslan after scale-up of production. Aslan will pay license fees to Pharming totalling € 20 million over the next three years of which a substantial part is expected to become due in 2009. During the 10-year term of the agreement Aslan will also pay royalties to Pharming based on net sales.
Aslan will produce a herd of transgenic cows with the ability to express human lactoferrin in their milk. They will also build one or more farms and facilities for housing the herd which will be produced by expanding the experimental herds already generated by Pharming. Milk fractions containing human lactoferrin will be incorporated into nutritional products to be marketed to people who will benefit from the use of lactoferrin.
Lactoferrin is a protein naturally present in different mammalian secretions especially in human breast milk, saliva and tears. The protein has several properties related to the human immune system, including anti-infective and anti-inflammatory protection. It has also been shown that the product has a positive effect on the growth of cells that protect the intestinal tract. Several scientific studies have shown that the product is very safe for human use.
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