(Taiwan) PharmaEssentia ramps up int'l networking, announces schedule for new HBV/HCV drug candidate :: BiotechEast - Taiwan and China biotechnology, medical devices, pharmaceuticals, ^¤å½s×, ^¤å×§ï ::

(BiotechEast staff)

4 July, 2007
With a successful excursion to Boston for the recent BIO 2007 conference and exhibition under its belt, and with visits to additional overseas bio-partnering events planned for the coming year, PharmaEssentia Corporation, a Taiwan-based biopharmaceutical company focusing on new drug research and development, is building up plenty of interest in its new PEGylated biologics for hepatitis B and C.

PharmaEssentia is quickly emerging as one of the strongest players in Asia's drug discovery scene. Its success can be attributed to PharmaEssentia's unique proprietary drug delivery technology, a drug development platform that has found to simultaneously increase efficacy and reduce side-effects of existing medicines.

The company is led by ex-Biogen scientist Dr. Ko-Chung Lin, one of a number of previously overseas-based Taiwanese bioscientists that now make up the core of PharmaEssentia's management and scientific team. The team boasts experience working for some of the world's most prestigious biotech and pharmaceutical companies, including Amgen, Aventis, Bristol Myers Squibb, Genentech, Merck, and Procter & Gamble Pharmaceutical.

PharmaEssentia is combining its proprietary site-specific PEGylation with a medicinal chemistry approach, along with the latest protein engineering technologies, PharmaEssentia has a series of PEGylated biologics undergoing various stages of research and development. This technology has been the engine driving the company's relatively quick progress in developing better medicines for diseases such as hepatitis B and C.

By utilizing its expertise in drug discovery and Taiwan's world-class basic research and unique clinical settings in hepatitis, PharmaEssentia has developed a new drug candidate, Peg-IFN-α -2b, a third-generation long-acting interferon-alpha molecule. The company's 40K Peg-IFN-α for treating HBV/HCV is named P1101.

"We've been actively seeking partners to work with us to develop P1101 into a new hepatitis B drug for the worldwide market," said Lin. "We will begin Phase I clinical trials in the US for this drug after our IND filing at the end of the year. Our aim with P1101 is to help reduce the enormous burden hepatitis B and C has on the populations of Asia and the rest of the world," he added.

Hepatitis is indeed a serious and growing problem particularly in Asia, and the market size for drugs treating HBV is estimated to grow to over US$3.5 billion by 2010 in Asia alone.

During its recent trip to BIO 2007 in Boston, PharmaEssentia was represented by Lin as well as Ms. Li Shufen, Manager of Business Development.

"The trip was extremely useful and exceeded our expectations. Prior to the event, we identified and contacted 30 of the world's largest pharma and biotech companies that we thought would be interested in partnering with us for P1101 post-IND filing," said Li

Lin and Li were kept busy with meetings back-to-back from eight in the morning until five in the afternoon for the full three days of the conference.

"We ended up meeting one-on-one with representatives of 16 of these companies in the bio-partnering sessions. These included executive directors of both business development and research development from such firms as Pfizer, J&J, Novartis, Wyeth, Eli Lily, GSK, and Amgen," she added. "We were very encouraged by the positive feedback we received in these sessions, and we look forward to developing these contacts further. It was a very rewarding experience for the company," she added.

PharmaEssentia also had a booth at the BIO 2007 exhibition, attracting visits by more than 80 interested companies, according to Li.

In addition to its focus on drug development, PharmaEssentia is also one of the world's largest manufacturers of the food and cosmetics supplement CoQ10. Utilizing the company's pharmaceutical manufacturing expertise, the company's CoQ10 API--branded "PharmaQ10"-- is particularly pure and has extremely high absorption rates.

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