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news.SemBioSys Genetics, a developer of protein-based pharmaceuticals, has announced that MannKind, a biopharmaceutical company, has purchased an option to license rights to SemBioSys's proprietary plant-produced recombinant human insulin.
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The option period ends on March 31, 2009. Terms of the option stipulate that the primary use of SemBioSys’s plant-produced insulin would be for Afresa, MannKind’s insulin, which recently completed Phase III studies.
SemBioSys is expected to receive in total $2.5m from MannKind, which includes the purchase by MannKind of 2.4m units of SemBioSys upon closing at a price per unit of C$1. The unit purchase is expected to close on January 5, 2009.
Each unit issued by SemBioSys is expected to consist of one common share of SemBioSys and one-tenth of one common share purchase warrant of SemBioSys. Each whole warrant will entitle MannKind to purchase one additional common share of SemBioSys at an exercise price of C$6 for a period of 36 months from the effective date of the option.
SemBioSys’s plant-produced insulin is human insulin produced from genetically enhanced safflower. SemBioSys has demonstrated that its plant-produced insulin is physically, structurally and functionally indistinguishable from pharmaceutical-grade human insulin through analytical testing and pre-clinical sub-chronic toxicology studies in rodents and primates.
Andrew Baum, president and CEO of SemBioSys, said: This option purchase provides further validation of our plant-produced recombinant human insulin program, and our high volume protein production platform more generally.
We believe MannKind’s Afresa program has the potential to transform the treatment of diabetes and that our cost-effective production system would provide them with significant cost benefits over existing production methods.