New Glycotherapeutics Lab Boosts New Zealand's Pharma Potential

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Researched by Industrialinfo.com (Industrial Information Resources Incorporated; Houston, Texas). When a new $6 million glycotherapeutics synthesis development and production facility opens in March 2003, it will boost New Zealand's ability to take newly discovered pharmaceutical candidates all the way from the laboratory to human clinical trials. IRL (Industrial Research Limited) GlycoSyn (Auckland, New Zealand) will use organic synthesis for use in the human clinical trials.

The new facility will feature separate functional areas for chemical manufacturing as well as containment sites for hazardous chemicals and storage areas for dry chemicals. The 420 square meters also includes a flameproof manufacturing area that will produce high value glyco-chemicals for pharmaceutical research and development and GM (genetically modified) materials for clinical studies.

IRL GlycoSyn will focus on target companies possessing glyco products early in the pharmaceutical pipeline that require process development and scale-up and then look after their growing clinical needs.

The company sees around 60 international pharmaceutical and biotech companies, including New Zealand clients, pursuing glycotherapeutics (pharmaceuticals based upon complex carbohydrate structures). IRL GlycoSyn is aiming for a high penetration into this growing contract manufacturing market.

Carbohydrates produced within the facility will be either biologically active or precursors to biologically active compounds, produced in quantities between one and 30 kilograms. Production will be via multi-step chemical synthesis from 10 - 100 kilogram quantities of starting materials.

Glycotherapeutics are carbohydrate processing inhibitors (CPI's) that are small molecular inhibitors of the intracellular enzymes responsible for making disease associated carbohydrate structures. They are used in the treatment of cancer, cardiovascular diseases, inflammation, and chronic infectious diseases.

The investment into this facility is a milestone in meting IRL's commitment to shareholders to create a high value pharmaceutical industry within New Zealand's advanced technology sector.

Industrial Research Limited is New Zealand's leading scientific research institute and plays a strategic role in acting as a catalyst for the country's development as an advanced technology, value added economy. It is a crown institute and has 400 staff in Auckland, Wellington, and Christchurch where it also functions as an incubator supporting start-ups. With an annual income of around $55 million, IRL's chief executive heads a senior management team who are involved in biochemistry, chemical and biological engineering, physics, organic and inorganic chemistry, mathematics, electrical and electronic engineering, mechanical and engineering science, metrology, and information science and technology. IRL is positioned to develop the talent produced by New Zealand's much vaunted national education system and for international cooperation.