In exchange for receiving this exclusive licence, Viropro will pay about $1 million in the form of 3,500,000 shares. The new deal reinforces the existing agreement signed between the two parties in November 2004.
The agreement allows Viropro to expand its base of patented and exclusive technology designed for biopharmaceutical manufacturing at industrial scale based on a protein expression system in mammalian cells.
Viropro predicts that the world market for therapeutic proteins will represent more than 70% of products registered with the FDA by 2010 with sales reaching more than 50 billion American dollars.
“Bolstered by a portfolio of high-performance and exclusive products, Viropro is in an excellent position to develop new niche markets overlooked by larger multinational firms as well as maximize its potential for partnership agreements in South America, Asia and Africa and to materialize technology transfer projects that will generate both short and medium-long term revenues.” said Dr Jean-Marie Dupuy, CEO of Viropro.