Success story: 22 February 07
Wins for biotechnology industry

Two multi-million dollar licensing deals signed with international pharmaceutical companies have given a significant boost to New Zealand’s biotechnology industry.

The contracts involve carbohydrate drug candidates discovered by CRI Industrial Research Limited (IRL) and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine (Einstein) in New York and licensed to United States biotechnology company BioCryst Pharmaceuticals Inc.

One is a drug for controlling auto-immune diseases, known as BCX-4208, which has been sub-licensed to pharmaceutical giant Roche in what was believed to be the worlds’s fifth largest biotech deal in 2005. The second, an anti-cancer drug known as Forodesine™, has been sub-licensed for commercialisation outside North America to Mundipharma International Holdings Ltd, based in Switzerland. Pending future development of the drugs, the combined deal value equates to US$680 million in milestone payments, plus royalties, with IRL sharing the financial returns.

The same team – Drs Peter Tyler, Gary Evans and Richard Furneaux of IRL and Professor Vern Schramm of Einstein – have a pipeline of other drug candidates progressing into pre-clinical development in the fields of cancer and anti-bacterial treatment. The inventors are also working on anti-malarial drugs that are beginning to show promise.

The Foundation? has invested nearly $25 million in the work of IRL’s carbohydrate scientists since 1992, with around one-third of that supporting the development of the two recently sub-licensed compounds.

Barbara Webster, a Senior Business Manager with the Foundation, says IRL’s success is evidence of the world-class science being carried out in New Zealand and demonstrates the start of financial returns for New Zealand from significant government investment in underpinning science.