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Print Edition StoriesThursday, February 26, 2009
GTC partners with New Zealand firm on transgenics
By Marc Songini
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Transgenics medicine maker GTC Biotherapeutics Inc. is linking up with a New Zealand-based company to provide it with animals necessary to create its products.
Framingham-based GTC makes ATryn, used to prevent thromboembolic problems. It produces the drug in the milk of goats, with human genes. GTC (Nasdaq: GTCB) has entered into a collaboration with New Zealand-based AgResearch Ltd. to develop transgenic founder animals that produce biosimilar monoclonal antibodies.
Using New Zealand animals will enable earlier sales of its products in Europe and other places, letting it make more money, as GTC’s relevant patents will expire in Europe before they do in the United States.
AgResearch will establish transgenic founder production lines, with most of the money provided by a grant from the New Zealand government. AgResearch will receive royalties on the future sales of the products. In a statement, GTC claimed AgResearch has “significant experience and expertise in pioneering transgenic techniques” and already has developed transgenic animals for other programs.
Earlier this month, GTC won approval for ATryn from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. ATryn is the first transgenically produced therapeutic protein and the first recombinant antithrombin in the United States, claimed GTC. ATryn had already been approved in the European Union. In addition to ATryn, GTC is developing a portfolio of recombinant human plasma proteins with therapeutic properties.
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