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Australasian Biotechnology, Vol. 10 No. 5, 2000, pp. 4-9 NEWS Code Number: au00049
Pictured, from left to right, are The Hon Dr Michael Wooldridge. Minister for Health and Aged Care, Mr Russell Edwards, Managing Director, Amgen Australia and Dr George Morstyn, the Chief Medical Officer for Amgen Incorporated and its Senior Vice-President for Development. Amgen Australia’s new offices and laboratory preparation and storage areas were opened on 17 August in Hawthorn, Melbourne, by the Federal Minister for Health and Aged Care, Dr Michael Wooldridge. During the cocktail function, Dr George Morstyn, the Chief Medical Officer for Amgen Incorporated and its Senior Vice-President for Development, outlined Amgen’s activities in Australia and plans for the future. Those in attendance included Director of WEHI, Dr Suzanne Cory, and Professor Don Metcalf, recent winner of the Victoria Prize. Amgen is the largest biotechnology company in the world, with annual sales exceeding US$3 billion and with a market capitalisation of approximately US$75 billion. Amgen commenced its Australian operations in 1991 and the Sydney headquarters were opened in March 1992. Today, almost half of the Australian operation is based in Melbourne, which is the focus for the company’s clinical research activities in Australia. Amgen Australia spends approximately $5 million annually on Australian clinical research, which is conducted in over 30 major institutions throughout the country. Amgen’s new Melbourne address is: Level 1, 801 Glenferrie Road, Hawthorn, Vic 3122 Its headquarters are located at: Level 3, 65 Epping Road, North Ryde, NSW 2113 BIOTECHNOLOGY INNOVATORA small business owner who has invented an innovative scientific testing product has been rewarded for his entrepreneurship by being named New South Wales’ winner of the 2000 Yellow Pages® Business Ideas Grants. Through his small business, Biotechnology Frontiers (BTF), Mark Gauci has led the development of ColorSeed, a product that provides a guaranteed microbiology test result by detecting microbes in our water, food, air and bodies. ColorSeed removes the uncertainty and controversy currently limiting the expansion and relevance of biotechnology testing. The product is a welcome addition to the nation’s water testing, which has, until ColorSeed, been dependent on sometimes inaccurate testing technology. Andrew Day, CEO of Pacific Access, the company that produces the Yellow Pages directories said Biotechnology Frontier’s idea was rewarded because of its vision, its unique qualities, and its potential to become a business success. Biotechnology Frontiers will now be teamed with a network of innovation and entrepreneurship experts, who will work towards turning the ColorSeed idea into commercial reality. YUNNAN TO BUILD “CHINESE BIOTECH VALLEY”A “Chinese Biotech Valley”, with a layout similar to the “Silicon Valley” in California, US, will be built in Yunnan, China. The idea of establishing a “Chinese Biotech Valley” was first mooted about 10 years ago and the government has pledged RMB20 billion (US$2.2 billion) to fulfil it. The government envisioned a modern biotech park made up of companies and people of many cultures, whose main aim is to protect and develop the natural resources in Yunnan. BioResearch Ireland Hub Site for Biotechnology BioResearch Ireland has revamped its website to include information for anybody interested in finding out more about Biotechnology - from beginners to those working in the industry. The site contains an educational section, news, biotech company information, a careers section as well as resources for start-up companies and a section for researchers with links to protocols and publications. PM’S SCIENCE PRIZE FOR FLOWERING GENE DISCOVERY The inaugural Prime Minister’s Prize for Science has gone to two CSIRO scientists for work that will help boost the world grain harvest by millions of tonnes. Research by the Dr Jim Peacock and Dr Liz Dennis of CSIRO Plant Industry may also enhance the nutritional value of grains eaten by billions of the world’s poorest people. Dr Peacock and Dr Dennis were awarded the PM’s Prize for their work in plant molecular biology, primarily the discovery of the Flowering Switch Gene, a key gene in determining when plants end their vegetative growth phase and start flowering. This discovery has direct implications for improving the performance of food crops. Adverse weather conditions when crops are in flower cost farmers in Australia and worldwide heavy losses each year. “If our $700 million rice crop experiences a cold snap around the time it’s flowering, the harvest can be cut by 25 per cent or more,” Dr Peacock says. “Hot temperatures when wheat is flowering can reduce yield equally significantly. These amount to big losses for our growers - but when crops in the Third World are similarly affected, the impact can be devastating.” By manipulating the Flowering Switch Gene it will be possible to produce strains of canola, wheat and other crops that flower at the right time for the climate in which they’re grown, so reducing the risk of yield losses. The $300,000 Prime Minister’s Prize for Science, the nation’s premier science award, is presented to Australian scientists who promote human welfare through an outstanding achievement in science or technology. Discovery of the gene was the fruit of a 20-year collaboration between Dr Dennis and Dr Peacock. One of the great mysteries in plant biology had long been what causes plants to flower when they’re subjected to a period of low temperature - a process called vernalisation. “It occurred to me that maybe there was a gene that switched on flowering after a period of cold and that the control of this gene was epigenetic,” says Dr Peacock. Peacock and Dennis went on to prove this idea using the experimental plant, Arabidopsis. By reducing the level of chemical change (methylation) in the plant’s DNA, they found they could minimise the need for cold before the plant would flower. Dennis suggested they further explore the idea with a strain of Arabidopsis that flowered very late. A normal Arabidopsis flowers after about thirty days. This strain hadn’t flowered in 150 days. The team then isolated the gene that causes the late flowering mutation. In a normal plant the gene represses flowering until the plant undergoes a period of cold. Come the cold, the gene switches off and the plant flowers. By knocking out the flowering repression gene in the odd strain of Arabidopsis, they caused the plant to flower. “This gene was clearly critical in flowering control and provided a molecular understanding of what was going on in the flowering process,” Dr Peacock says. The next move was to show the same gene controlled flowering in canola. Current research aims isolate the same gene in wheat - a goal they hope to achieve within 12 months. If the team succeeds, wheat growers will eventually be able to select a wheat that heads at just the right time to suit their local climate. “And canola farmers will be able to say ‘I want a 120-day flowering crop, or a 150-day crop’ and the seed to produce those crops will be available,” says Dr Peacock. “It’ll take about six years before wheat crops with modified Flowering Switch Genes are available to farmers. However that timeframe may be influenced by public acceptance, if the seed is genetically modified.” Dr Dennis estimates that if seed wheat developed using the Flowering Switch Gene were planted extensively, it could improve the value of Australia s $4 billion wheat harvest by up to ten per cent. “If Flowering Switch technology, with other genes, were taken up world-wide, it would add billions of tonnes to world crop output,” she says. Dr Peacock believes Flowering Switch technology can make an important difference to the lives of subsistence farmers in developing countries, who are even more at the mercy of the elements than western farmers. “CSIRO owns the patents to our research. That way it benefits Australia, and we can also make it available to developing nations.” The Australian Museum has launched the 2001 Australian Museum Eureka Prizes. Australia’s pre-eminent national science awards. Your attention is drawn in particular to the Australian Museum Eureka Prize for Industry. The Prize is awarded to a business, company or corporation which, through innovation or outstanding commitment to research, development or training, has sought to elevate corporate responsibility for scientific endeavour to a level consistent with our national capacity and needs. Entries/nominations in the 2001 Eureka Prizes close on Friday 9 February 2001. Further information on, and entry forms for all prizes are available from the Australian Museum’s webpage at www.austmus.gov.au/eureka or on request. Winners of the 2001 Eureka Prizes will be announced at an award ceremony at the Australian Museum on Tuesday 15 May 2001, with winners profiled on Quantum, ABC’s award-winning national science program, on 17 May 2001. GMO YOGURT BACTERIA PREVENT COLITIS IN MICE Scientists in Belgium and Germany have devised a way to use Lactococcus lactis, a harmless bacterium used in fermenting foods, to deliver the anti-inflammatory cytokine interleukin-10 directly to the site of inflammation in mice with colitis. “This approach may lead to better methods for cost-effective and long-term management of inflammatory bowel disease in humans,” Dr. Lothar Steidler, of Ghent University, in Belgium, and colleagues propose in the August 25th issue of Science. The team genetically engineered L. lactis to secrete interleukin-10. They found that injecting this bacterium into the stomachs of mice with experimentally induced colitis reduced the severity of disease by 50%. In mice bred to lack interleukin-10, which normally develop colitis spontaneously, injection of interleukin-10-secreting L. lactis prevented the onset of colitis. Moreover, these benefits were achieved with only a fraction of the interleukin-10 dose needed to induce a therapeutic effect systemically, Dr. Steidler and colleagues report. In an editorial, Dr. Fergus Shanahan, of Cork University Hospital in Ireland, points out that systemic side effects and a lack of organ specificity have limited the use of several other therapeutic strategies in inflammatory bowel disease. While questions remain regarding the safety and efficacy of the new approach, Dr. Shanahan notes that it “gives us a glimpse into the untapped potential for therapeutically manipulating the content of enteric bacteria.” NEW APPOINTMENTS TO PLANT BREEDERS’ COMMITTEE Federal Agriculture Minister Warren Truss has announced the appointments of Dr Paul Brennan, Mr Peter Neilson and Ms Anna Sharpe to Plant Breeders’ Rights Advisory Committee (PBRAC). Mr Truss said plant breeding is an area critically important to Australia’s ability to meet the increasing world demand for food and fibre by improving yields and product quality. “Since the Plant Breeders’ Rights Act 1994 (PBRA) was introduced, there has been a significant increase in the number of new varieties registered with around 20 added each year to the category of major export crops,” he said. “The Advisory Committee promotes better communication between the Government and the community on a range of issues affecting new plant varieties. It is also an invaluable source of advice, both to myself and to the Registrar of the Plant Breeders’ Rights Office, regarding policy, administrative and technical issues relating to the PBRA. “The PBRA provides the legislative framework for encouraging increased investment in plant breeding, access to elite varieties from overseas, technology transfer and exports. It places considerable emphasis on protecting the public interest and ensuring producers have good access to new plant varieties and products.” Mr Truss said the new Committee’s membership represents a diverse range of backgrounds and will bring to the task an excellent mix of expertise and experience. The full membership is:
A new industry organisation, Science Industry Australia, has been formed from the Scientific Suppliers Association of Australia, following its annual general meeting in August. The new Association, headed by President, Dr Geoffrey Burge, Managing Director of Sigma Aldrich, will act as a central advisory, consultative and coordinating body for the science industry in Australia and be the peak policy-making body for the science industry. The organisation has 100 member companies, including scientific and life-science product and equipment suppliers; scientific, analytical and diagnostic equipment manufacturers, exporters and importers; chemical and gas companies; software companies and specialised recruiters. For further information, contact Executive Director, Charles Wurf, on (02) 9804 8051. Eleven biotechnology companies are taking part in the November US BioPartnering Roadshow organised by Austrade. The companies, chosen in a competitive process by a selection panel of Australian and US industry experts, include Elastomedic (medical implant material technology), Bio Nova (tissue engineering), Alchemia, (carbohydrate synthesis & libraries), Promics (drugs - human therapeutics), Praxis (drugs - human therapeutics), Peplin Biotech (drugs - human therapeutics), GroPep (drugs - human therapeutics), Xenome (drugs - human therapeutics), Fungi-Gulp (environmental waste management), ID Plus +, (livestock management technologies), and Probiotec, (nutritional supplements, nutraceuticals). The seven-day Roadshow involves a range of activities in San Francisco and New Brunswick, including company presentations and meetings with potential US partners. It is supported by Austrade, the Department of Industry, Science and Resources Technology Diffusion Program, State Governments, Invest Australia and Biotechnology Australia. NEW VICTORIA INSTITUTE OF BIOTECHNOLOGY LAUNCHED The new Victoria Institute of Biotechnology has been officially launched as a joint venture between the Austin Research Institute (ARI) and the Victoria University (VU). The Institute, headed by Professor Mark Hogarth, currently Deputy Director of ARI, is to be established in a new $10 million building on Victoria University’s Werribee Campus within the Werribee Technology Precinct. Overall, the joint venture will provide $17.7 million in new and refurbished buildings and equipment and $9.17 million in personnel, consumables and research initiative funding. An additional $14 million is being sought from the Victorian Government. Initial research will be undertaken in a new Centre for Drug Design and Development, which will involve the discovery and production of drugs and reagents for the treatment of disease in humans and animals. The Centre will comprise eight laboratories focusing on fermentation, x-ray crystallography, microchemical and nmr, drug design, drug synthesis, combinatorial chemistry and biological testing. The first project, to be undertaken collaboratively at ARI and the new Centre, is planned to extend current research into drugs to prevent arthritis to the commercialisation stage. Prior to completion of the new building, Victoria University is modifying a building within the Faculty of Science and Engineering to accommodate the fermentation, chemistry and molecular modelling laboratories. The full commercial release of Roundup Ready cotton and Roundup Ready /INGARD Cotton sold by Monsanto has been approved by the Federal Health Minister, Dr Michael Wooldridge, last month. The decision followed an assessment and public consultation by Interim Office of the Gene Technology Regulator (IOGTR) of the environmental and public health and safety implications of the release. INGARD was first approved for general commercial release in Australia in 1996, subject to an initial five-year approval period. The advice of the Genetic Modification Advisory Committee (GMAC) on Roundup Ready cotton and the combination cotton was that “the release of this crop into the environment would not pose any additional risks to human health and safety or to the environment as a result of the genetic modification, over and above the risks posed by conventional cotton.” GMAC concluded that transfer of the antibiotic resistance genes from Roundup Ready cotton to bacteria is extremely unlikely and would pose negligible risks to human health or the environment. GMAC noted that the incidence of naturally occurring bacterial strains resistant to the antibiotics in question was already very high, and the antibiotic-resistance genes in these bacteria were often located on transmissible genetic elements that are readily transferable between bacterial species. It concluded that in the unlikely event that the genes were transferred from Roundup Ready cotton to a bacterium, the impact would have no significant impact on the level of resistance in microbial populations. GMAC also concluded that the risk of the genetic switch from the cauliflower mosaic virus (CaMV) recombining with viruses infecting Roundup Ready or INGARD cotton, and leading to the production of new recombinant viruses was negligible. GMAC pointed out that CaMV is already ubiquitous in the environment and in the human diet and the promoter is expressed at far higher levels in naturally infected plants than in transgenic plants. “There is no evidence that recombination of CaMV sequences with the genome of any plant, animal, bacteria or virus has occurred in nature during evolutionary history.” Biotechnology company, Autogen Ltd, headed by Managing Director, Joseph Gutnik, has announced the discovery of a new gene associated with diabetes. The discovery entitles the company to an immediate milestone payment of $737,000 under an agreement with German pharmaceutical company, Lipha sa, a wholly owned subsidiary of Merck KGaA. The new diabetes gene, named ‘Tanis’, was discovered by Autogen’s research team based at Deakin University, led by senior scientists of the company’s gene discovery program, Dr Ken Walder and Dr Janine McMillan. The Tanis gene relates to a novel receptor involved in the body’s response to fasting and the regulation of glucose and fat metabolism. Control of this receptor appears to be abnormal in diabetes. The research team found increased levels of the Tanis gene in the liver, fat tissue and adipose tissue of fasted rats compared to fed animals. The levels were much greater in diabetic, obese animals than in healthy animals. Discovery of the Tanis gene follows the recent discovery by Autogen of the Beacon gene, which produces a protein that has been demonstrated to play a direct role in the regulation of food intake and body weight. With the assistance from Lipha, the Beacon gene for obesity and the Tanis gene for diabetes are now being further investigated with the aim of developing new approaches to treatment. Autogen last month announced an after-tax operating loss for 1999-00 of $9 million, down from the previous year’s loss of $12.7 million. The loss included a write-off for R&D expenditure of $5.1 million, offset by funds of $2.1 million provided by Lipha. NEW NHMRC PROGRAM FOR RESEARCH TEAMS The National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) has released a discussion paper outlining the proposed New Program Grants, part of the new system for NHMRC research funding announced in August 1999 in the paper, Reshaping NHMRC’s Research Support Scheme. Final details of the new scheme will be determined by the Council this month. The New Program Grants will be the major category of funding provided through ‘Type II’ grants, which will support ongoing research programs undertaken by teams of researchers working around a broad research theme. The aim of the New Program Grants scheme is to provide large, five-year grants awarded on a one-line basis to allow maximum flexibility in the use of funds. The scheme is intended to become the preferred funding source for team-based research. It will be available to medical research institutes, existing NHMRC Program and Unit grant holders, groups who hold multiple NHMRC Project grants, and groups who hold research support from other competitive, peer-reviewed sources. Support under the New Program Grants scheme will commence from 1 January 2002, with annual application rounds commencing in January 2001. Expressions of interest in the January 2001 round are due by November 30. For further details, access the discussion paper on the internet at http://www.nhmrc.health.gov.au/ The NHMRC has released Draft Guidelines for Intellectual Property Management and Commercialisation for Health and Medical Research. The guidelines have been prepared in response to recommendations of the Wills strategic review of health and medical research, which aimed to establish research culture with a stronger emphasis on commercialisation, technology transfer, entrepreneurialism and wealth accumulation. The guidelines aim to assist NHMRC-funded researchers and their administering institutions in adopting good practices for the identification, protection and management of IP. The NHMRC is proposing that an authorised officer of each administering institution would be required to make a declaration that the institution adheres to the guidelines, as part of their accreditation as an administering institution, along with the declarations relating to human and animal experimentation ethics and good research practice. Individual researchers would be expected to use the IP policies and procedures of their administering institutions, and would not be required to make a personal declaration regarding IP as part of their application for funding. The Guidelines are expected to be introduced in time for the 2001 round of funding applications, to take effect in 2002. The Cooperative Research Centre for Vaccine Technology and Vaccine Solutions Pty Ltd have signed a licensing and collaboration agreement with Active Biotech AB (Lund, Sweden) to develop a novel peptide-based vaccine for the prevention of streptococcal throat infections. The organism responsible for the problem, Group A streptococci, can also cause rheumatic fever and rheumatic heart disease leading to more severe complications of chronic heart and kidney damage. Under the terms of the licence agreement, Vaccine Solutions will provide access to novel peptides and technologies and Active Biotech will make upfront and milestone payments and will pay royalties on sales of product. Active Biotech will also support research and development on the vaccine to be carried out by the CRC for Vaccine Technology. An estimated 35 million cases of strep throat occur each year in Europe and North America alone, affecting mainly school-aged children and young adults. Although strep throat responds to conventional antibiotic treatment, the large number of cases puts a considerable burden on health-care resources. An effective vaccine would therefore provide a cost-effective means of preventing disease and help reduce the increasing incidence of microbial antibiotic resistance, which occurs largely from over-dependence on antibiotic therapies. “Development of a vaccine for strep throat is complicated by the large variation in the cell surface make-up of the different streptococcal strains. These differences between strains make it difficult for the immune system to recognise and mount an effective response against all the strains. As part of our on-going Group A streptococcus vaccine program, we have identified a region on the cell surface that is structurally identical in a significant proportion of Group A strains,” said Professor Michael Good, Program Leader at the CRC. “Through our alliance with Active Biotech we gain access to further novel antigens and peptides and significant expertise in clinical development.” GRANT FUNDS UWA RESEARCH EQUIPMENT A grant of almost $600,000 from the Lotteries Commission of Western Australia has been used to purchase new laser microdissection equipment and an electron scanning microscope at the University of Western Australia Department of Pathology. The laser microdissection facility is the only one of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere and will allow microscopic regions of tissue to be precisely delineated and ‘ captured’ for analysis. It can be used in a wide range of fields including in-vitro fertilisation, cloning, cancer research, animal development, botany, agriculture, engineering, and biopolymer research. The scanning electron microscope will allow for extensive research on various cell types and parasites. Scott Carpenter has commenced a new list available to all members of the ABA. He will moderate the input to the discussion, and can be contacted at scott.carpenter@aventis.com. We encourage all members to subscribe (free) to this list. It is a great source of summaries of recent biotech matters worldwide. It is also an opportunity for subscribers to take part in debates about biotechnology matters. The following new members are welcomed to the Association:
OUTCOMES OF CEO ROUNDTABLES ON WEB Details of the CEO Roundtables held at the ABA2000 Conference are available on the ABA website. The reports cover the CEO Roundtable on Finance, the CEO Roundtable on Managing Technology Platforms, and the CEO Roundtable on Startups and Spinouts. The web site is at http://www.aba.asn.au/ HARNESSING THE MEGA-BIODIVERSITY OF INSECTS News from CSIRO Entomology Insects and other terrestrial invertebrates comprise at least one million described species and possibly up to 8 million species in total (Hawksworth et al. 1995) . Insects are known to engage in complex chemical interactions. However, this area of biodiversity appears to have received scant attention from natural products chemists (Henkel et al. 1999) despite the fact that its species diversity dwarfs both that of other macroorganisms and the diversity of microbes that can be cultured in the laboratory (Amann et al. 1995) . The lack of attention paid these organisms in the past probably stems from the difficulty of collecting insects in sufficient quantities for classical screening programs. Now, adoption of ultralow volume assays and a range of micropreparative and microanalytical techniques for dereplication and structural elucidation is making it attractive to include insects in a natural products discovery program. Australia is a particularly rich source of insect extracts for screening and CSIRO Entomology is Australia’s largest organisation conducting research on insects. The native invertebrate fauna represents 10% of the global total, with a high level of endemism. CSIRO Entomology is also the location of the Australian National Insect Collection (ANIC), a research and reference collection comprising 11 million specimens, which provides a strong foundation for investigating all aspects of insect biology and chemistry. Over the past two years, CSIRO Entomology has developed a library of extracts from a phylogenetically diverse collection of approximately 1,000 species of insects. These are being screened for agrochemical and pharmaceutical purposes. CSIRO Entomology is seeking to license its library to suitable companies for pharmaceutical screening. Applications of insect biodiversity to pharmaceutical and biotechnology go beyond simple screening programs to isolation of microbial symbionts and use of genes encoding bioactive polypeptides. For example insects utilise an unparalleled array of biologically active peptides and polypeptides. These include a diverse set of antihaemostatic proteins, enzymes that degrade pesticides, bioluminescent proteins, antimicrobial peptides, toxins and many others. CSIRO Entomology has experience isolating the genes for biologically active proteins from a range of insects. Another exciting area for exploration is the microbial niche represented by insects themselves. For example, following bushfires, beetles are known to introduce an opportunistic ascomycete flora to the temporarily sterile forest. More generally, many insect species harbour a rich variety of microbial symbionts, many of them unknown outside their insect hosts. Pilot studies have demonstrated the feasibility of utilising the insect hosts to identify and isolate this novel flora. CSIRO’s capabilities range from insect collection and identification through to gene isolation, characterisation and expression. CSIRO Entomology conforms to Australian biodiversity and native wildlife legislation and has obtained informed consent from landholders and the permits required by relevant jurisdictions prior to collecting and/or exporting the material described above. References
South Australian biotechnology firm, GroPep Ltd, which listed on the ASX in August, has announced a net profit for 1999-2000 of $49,000. The result, which represented a $715,000 turnaround from the previous year, was achieved on revenues of $6.493 million, up from $3.942 million the previous year. Direct R&D expenses totalled $3.504 million. GroPep received $15 million from the issue of 9.375 million shares at $1.60 a share and another $2.4 million in oversubscriptions. Based in Adelaide, the company was founded in 1988 to commercialise intellectual property relating to a novel insulin-like growth factor developed through a scientific collaboration between CSIRO and the University of Adelaide. It now has three major business units: Pharmaceutical Cell Culture, which produces products required for the manufacture of many new-generation drugs; Pharmaceutical Drug Development; and Biotechnology Reagents, used in research by universities and industrial companies. GroPep’s Managing Director, Dr John Ballard, said the sales of growth factors accounted for 68% of total revenue, with 83% of sales going to pharmaceutical companies and researchers in North America and another 13% to Europe. He said further expansion was projected from a 10-year marketing and distribution agreement implemented with CSL Limited. GroPep Announces New Clinical Trials GroPep Limited has announced that it has commenced a Phase II clinical trial for a chronic wound application (PV702). The Phase II trial, using a patented growth factor composition, is aimed at determining the product’s efficacy as a treatment for chronic venous ulcers, a condition which represents about 20% of all chronic wounds treated. In 1999, United States expenditure on treatment for chronic venous ulcers was approximately US$1 billion. Dr Ballard, said the trial would be undertaken at nine Australian hospitals over the next two years. “GroPep this week received notice that the key patent that underpins the growth factor composition will proceed to allowance in the United States, with the patent already granted in Europe, Australia and New Zealand.” said Dr Ballard. The company also has Phase II trials under way for diabetic neuropathy (PV705), and for donor site wounds in burns patients (PV707). With a further four drug candidates at preclinical trial stage, Dr Ballard said the money raised in the recent float would be used to fund ongoing clinical trials for the next three years. The Company’s Pharmaceutical Cell Culture growth factor LR3 is used in the production of three approved drugs marketed by pharmaceutical companies and is being evaluated in the manufacturing process of an additional 50 drug candidates under development by the pharmaceutical industry. World-wide sales of GroPep’s Biotechnology Reagents increased by 39%. Negotiations are well under way for a Phase II trial for the treatment of oral mucositis in cancer patients. A research agreement has also been entered into with Nestlé in Switzerland to co-develop cheese whey-derived growth factors for nutritional and gut pharmaceutical applications, while GroPep and the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, USA, had agreed to co-develop intellectual property owned by Mayo as a treatment for osteoporosis. Copyright 2000 - Australasian Biotechnology |
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