55.7 F
San Diego
Tuesday, Mar 19, 2024
-Advertisement-

Drug OK Adds to Halozyme’s Success Story

Sorrento Valley-based Halozyme Therapeutics Inc. has hit another goal.

On June 20, the publicly traded biotechnology firm announced the launch of its first approved product, Cumulase, a human-based enzyme used for preparing eggs for in vitro fertilization procedures.

The company won Food and Drug Administration marketing approval for Cumulase in April and at the time said it would launch the product this summer.

Halozyme has already signed nonexclusive distribution agreements with three key suppliers: MediCult, a Denmark-based company with a large distribution clout in Europe; MidAtlantic Diagnostics Inc., of Marlton, N.J., whose strength is the North American market; and Cook Ob/Gyn Inc., of Spencer, Ind., which covers Australia and Asia.

“We are thrilled to launch our first product and to offer IVF specialists a safer, purer and more reliable alternative to animal-derived extracts,” said Jonathan Lim, Halozyme’s chairman and chief executive officer.

Barriers to market entry are likely remaining.

Industry insiders predicted that doctors’ willingness to replace existing animal-derived enzymes with this first-ever approved human-based enzyme could be challenging.

Cumulase will compete against products from six major suppliers, including Santa Ana-based Irvine Scientific and the animal-derived products made by MediCult and Cook Ob/Gyn.

Pricing will also be an issue.

Cumulase will be priced at a twofold to threefold premium compared with existing products, which run $9 to $20 a vial, Lim said.

Halozyme’s stock, which trades on the American Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol HTI, rose 1 cent to close at $1.79 on June 20.

– – –


Collaborators:

Diversa Corp. announced June 20 that it expanded an existing collaborative agreement with Merck & Co., Inc. to develop antibodies.

Diversa will receive another upfront payment and research funding, and is entitled to milestone payments based on successful development of antibody candidates, as well as royalties on sales if a product hits the market.

The initial agreement dates back to January.

Diversa could not be reached to comment on the terms of the expanded agreement.

– – –


Acquisitions:

San Diego-based Novasite Pharmaceuticals Inc., which focuses on developing drugs for diseases affecting the central nervous system, said June 15 that it acquired Boston-based Psychenomics, Inc., a drug discovery firm with complementary technology, for an undisclosed priced.

“The Psychenomics acquisition provides Novasite with high-quality CNS drug leads, our area of therapeutic focus,” said Tim Harris, the president and chief executive officer of Novasite.

Dr. James Hauske will join Novasite from Psychenomics to become executive vice president of drug discovery, Novasite said.

– – –


Burnham Lands Government Grant:

La Jolla’s Burnham Institute said June 16 that the National Institutes of Health awarded it a three-year $11.9 million grant to establish a national center for screening some 2 million molecules as part of a wider effort to try to identify drugs faster.

The San Diego Chemical Library Screening Center will become one of only nine national centers for high-throughput chemical compound screening known collectively as the Molecular Libraries Screening Centers Network.

Dr. John Reed, Burnham’s president and chief executive officer, will direct the center, which will use robotic screening instrumentation to test 2 million compounds against at least 20 disease targets per year looking for medicinal properties.

Molecules that interact with and block disease-causing proteins will undergo further testing to see if they make good drug candidates.

“Already, Burnham scientists have contributed in whole or in part to several medications now in use for preventing or treating stroke, heart attack, cancer, nerve degeneration, and Alzheimer’s disease,” Reed said. “Armed with the new capabilities provided through the NIH grant, we will be poised to accelerate our efforts 100-fold.”

Burnham dedicates a multidisciplinary staff of scientists to design and implement all screening tests, robotic chemical library screening, bioinformatics and data management.

The chemistry effort to optimize drugs will be done in collaboration with two San Diego research groups, the Torrey Pines Institute for Molecular Studies, led by Richard Houghten, and the Human Biomolecular Research Institute, led by John Cashman.

“This is a merger of immense synergistic talents,” said Houghten.

NIH director Dr. Elias Zerhouni adopted the Molecular Screening Centers Network to accelerate scientists’ understanding of biology and disease mechanism.

“More importantly, it will, for the first time, enable academic researchers to explore novel ideas and enable progress on a broad front against human disease,” Zerhouni said.

All information coming out of the centers will be made publicly available through the NIH’s National Library of Medicine database.


Contact Marion Webb at marionw@sdbj.com or call her at (858) 277-6359, Ext. 3108.

-Advertisement-

Featured Articles

-Advertisement-
-Advertisement-

Related Articles

-Advertisement-
-Advertisement-
-Advertisement-