Rochester's Biotech Business Expands
[Some local reporting on the Vaccinex - Biocon deal. It is interesting to note, that the clinical trials will start in India and that Vaccinex has actively been looking for this type of set-up with an Asian company. No doubt costs will be lower and set-up most probably faster with this type of arrangement compared to a traditional approach working with and through a US partner in trials overseen by the FDA].
(WROC-TV)
Video: Low : High
11/18/2004 5:00 PM
(Elizabeth Harness, WROC-TV)
On Thursday, Vaccinex, a Rochester biotechnology company, announced a revolutionary new partnership with a biotech company across the globe...Biocon, Limited, in India. Together, the firms will create four new therapeutic antibody drugs to treat cancer, anti-inflammatory and auto-immune diseases.
"An antibody is very specific...you can select an antibody to do exactly the thing you want it to do," says Maurice Zauderer, president and CEO of Vaccinex, "we plan to initiate trials first in India, but then as those results become available, to initiate those trials in the United States."
The first drug being developed will treat breast cancer. The collaboration plans to create one drug per year. Each medication will undergo extensive international clinical trials and it will take five to six years before one drug is released to the public market.
"And we hope even earlier, that before the drugs can be marketed, the clinical trials can be done locally," says Zauderer, who, before taking the helm at Vaccinex, was a professor at the University of Rochester's Wilmot Cancer Center.
Vaccinex was founded seven years ago. The company is primarily focused on the discovery and development of novel therapeutic antibodies. Vaccinex has more than 6 million dollars to date in research grants, and holds more than 20 patent applications in the U.S. and abroad.
For more than a year, Vaccinex officials have been shopping the markets of India and Asia for a partnership to co-create antibody medications. Biocon Limited is India's first biotechnology company. Established in 1978, Biocon is a firm with over 1500 employees. As part of the new partnership, Biocon is investing 4 million dollars in Vaccinex.
Rather than taking jobs away from Rochester, Vaccinex will likely add more jobs as the new partnership expands.
"Anything that either Vaccinex or other companies can do to help build up the biotech industry base in Rochester, is going to make it easier for the industry to grow and develop here," says Zauderer.
wroctv.com |
