Protherics awarded

The Welsh Assembly Government has granted £1million through its SMARTCymru programme to Protherics, a biopharmaceutical company which has its main manufacturing operations in Ceredigion, mid-Wales.

The grant will be used to support the manufacture of Protherics' promising anti-sepsis drug CytoFab, which is being developed in partnership with AstraZeneca.

CytoFab is a first in class anti-TNF-alpha polyclonal antibody fragment product, which is being developed for the treatment of severe sepsis. The annual worldwide incidence of sepsis is around three million people and around a third of these patients will die from resulting organ failure. Sepsis is an area of major unmet need and represents a global market that has the potential to be worth up to US$8bn per annum in the future, according to Protherics.

The drug has been out-licensed to AstraZeneca, which is responsible for its global development and commercialisation, in an agreement worth up to £195m to Protherics in upfront and milestone payments, with an additional 20 percent royalty payable on global sales of CytoFab.

Protherics is responsible for the manufacture of CytoFab and is scaling-up the manufacturing process at its facility in Llandysul, Ceredigion, where it employs 140 people.

The investment from the Welsh Assembly will help Protherics supply CytoFab for clinical trials to be conducted by AstraZeneca in 2007 and through to potential commercialisation.