Pharming signs licensing agreement with Aslan Group

The companies have previously concluded a commercialization and supply agreement for the marketing and distribution of food or food supplements containing Pharming’s human lactoferrin product (hLF).

Under the terms of this new agreement, Aslan will have exclusive rights to produce hLF based on Pharming’s transgenic technology and sell nutritional products containing Pharming’s lactoferrin in Turkey, the Middle East, UAE, Russia, Ukraine and several other countries in this region with a non-exclusive license to other parts of the world to be selected by Aslan after scale-up of production.

Aslan will pay license fees to Pharming totaling E20 million over the next three years of which a substantial part is expected to become due in 2009. During the 10-year term of the agreement Aslan will also pay royalties to Pharming based on net sales.

Aslan will produce a herd of transgenic cows with the ability to express human lactoferrin in their milk. They will also build one or more farms and facilities for housing the herd which will be produced by expanding the experimental herds already generated by Pharming. Milk fractions containing human lactoferrin will be incorporated into nutritional products to be marketed to people who will benefit from the use of lactoferrin.

Bruno Giannetti, chief operations officer of Pharming, said: “The new agreement with Aslan on the production of recombinant human lactoferrin is important for Pharming as it is the first scaled-up transgenic product from Pharming brought into major markets together with an experienced partner. It further validates the commercial importance of this product and will solidify Pharming’s financial position.”