Pharming Acquires New Product Leads Through The Acquisition Of Certain Assets Of TRM SASU For € 0.5 Million In Cash
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Leiden, The Netherlands, 19 August 2014. Biotech company Pharming Group NV (“Pharming” or “the Company”) (Euronext: PHARM) today announced that through the acquisition of certain assets of Transgenic Rabbit Models SASU (TRM), a private French company in liquidation; for € 0.5 million in cash, it has gained access to five potential new product leads (founder rabbits); recombinant- human (rh)-a-glucosidase for the treatment of Pompe’s disease, rh-a-galactosidase for the treatment of Fabry’s disease, rh-ß-cerebrosidase for the treatment of Gaucher’s disease, rh- Factor VIII for the treatment of Haemophilia-A and rh- Factor IX for the treatment of Haemophilia-B.
In addition, Pharming gained access to transgenic rabbit founder technology and know-how developed by TRM.
Pharming plans to start a small (French) research group to facilitate further optimization of these product leads, the further enhancement of the rabbit founder technology & know-how and for the generation of additional potential future products.
Bruno Giannetti, Pharming’s Chief Operating Officer commented, “Through this acquisition, we have added two important assets; the capability to create rabbit founders as an addition to our FDA and EMA validated technology platform, and, at the same time, a number of product leads. The latter means that we will not only be able to strengthen our Factor VIII project with SIPI by adding an additional source of founder rabbits, but also to accelerate, by possibly as much as two years, our ability to develop additional products in therapeutic areas where our technology platform is particularly efficient -the development of treatments for rare genetic and life-threatening diseases such as Pompe’s, Fabry’s and Gaucher’s disease-. It is these kinds of diseases that require the complex proteins that continue to pose serious technical and cost challenges to cell based production methods. We look forward to start working on the partnered development of a selection of these assets, for which we already have the required financial strength and/or partnership(s) in place”.
Sijmen de Vries, Pharming’s CEO added, “This is a potentially exciting opportunity to gain new assets that could go some way towards fulfilling our vision in developing innovative products for the treatment of unmet medical needs in rare diseases. We look forward to updating the market on the integration and progress with this acquisition.”