BAC and Octapharma Extend Recombinant Factor IX Collaboration for Clinical and Commercial Scale Production, and Initiate a Further Blood Disorder Programme

Octapharma produces FIX for the treatment of bleeding in Haemophilia B. The licence agreement follows on from successful completion of feasibility studies. Concurrently, the companies have embarked on a new discovery programme under which BAC will develop a CaptureSelect affinity ligand for the purification of recombinant human granulocyte-colony stimulating factor (G-CSF), which has applications in oncology and haematology.

Under the terms of the FIX agreement Octapharma will have licence to use BAC’s anti-FIX ligand for the purification of FIX from mammalian cell culture. Under the terms of the G-CSF agreement BAC will perform ligand discovery and development to provide an anti-G-CSF ligand, which will then undergo feasibility studies at Octapharma.

Factor IX is an essential product for the prophylaxis and treatment of bleeding in Haemophilia B, an X-linked recessive blood disorder that affects around 1 in 30,000 men. Octapharma currently markets a plasma-derived FIX product and is now progressing its recombinant FIX project. G-CSF is a hormone that stimulates bone marrow to produce white blood cells and stem cells, and has therapeutic uses in oncology and haematology.