The audit was performed as part of the Ministry of Health’s evaluation of Protalix’s manufacturing process of taliglucerase alfa for the treatment of Gaucher disease.
Earlier, in February 2010, Protalix had announced Phase III data at the Lysosomal Disease Network’s World symposium. The study, which reached its primary endpoint, demonstrated a mean reduction in spleen volume in both treatment arms studied (60U/kg, 30U/kg taliglucerase alfa) in patients with Gaucher disease in a highly significant statistical manner.
In the study, taliglucerase alfa was well tolerated, no serious or severe adverse events were reported, a low (6%) level of antibody formation was found and there was no neutralizing antibody formation.
David Aviezer, president and CEO of Protalix, said: “The successful audit of our manufacturing facility by the Israeli Health Ministry is another important milestone toward our plans to commercialise taliglucerase alfa in Israel and throughout the world. This important achievement helps to demonstrate the viability, quality and commercial potential of our proprietary plant-cell based technology platform.”