ProMetic Further Confirms Performance of Prion Capture Resin

Tag : Resins

MARKETWIRE Jun 25, 2008 MONTREAL, QUEBEC MARKET WIRE
ProMetic Life Sciences Inc. (TSX: PLI) ("ProMetic") announced todaythat it has further confirmed the efficacy of the prion captureresins developed by Pathogen Removal and Diagnostic TechnologiesInc. ("PRDT")' in the removal of prions from different solutions,including mixtures of proteins containing high concentrations ofspecific proteins such as 25% albumin and 3% immunoglobulinsolutions without affecting the concentration of the proteins.Plasma-derived albumin and immunoglobulin proteins are commonlyused as therapeutics. Furthermore, proteins such as albumin arealso regularly used as non-active stabilizing ingredients in theformulation of biopharmaceutical products.
"This has far reaching implications for the biopharmaceuticalindustry. It offers the opportunity to provide an additional safetyelement by including prion-depleted human blood-derived oranimal-derived products in the formulation and manufacture of someof these high-value therapeutics," stated Mr. Pierre Laurin,ProMetic's President and Chief Executive Officer.
In addition, the evaluation of PRDT resins established theirability to efficiently remove infectious prion protein from wholehuman plasma, a complex mixture of hundreds of different proteins,and demonstrated that the ligands developed by PRDT targets theprion protein, and can bind that compound even under thecompetition of several proteins, without significantly binding anyof the proteins vital for plasma.
This corroboration of the PRDT resins' performance follows on theJune 10th announcement of Octopharma AG's recent implementation ofPRDT's prion removal resin into their manufacturing process ofOctaplas(R). For additional information on this announcement,please visit ProMetic's Newsroom at www.prometic.com/en/news.htm.
Dr. Patrick Gurgel, ProMetic's Senior Research Scientist addressedthe information on the PRDT resins in a poster titled "Removal ofprion infectivity from plasma-derived products" during the Recoveryof Biological Products 13 Conference held in Quebec City, Quebecfrom June 22 - 27, 2008. The poster is available on ProMetic'swebsite at www.prometic.com/en/scientific_information.htm.
About Pathogen Removal and Diagnostic Technologies Inc.
Pathogen Removal and Diagnostic Technologies Inc. ("PRDT") is ajoint venture established in April 2002 by The American Red Crossand ProMetic Life Sciences Inc., and allows for the exchange oftechnology and knowledge between the two organizations. PRDT's maingoal is to develop products and devices to remove and detectdifferent pathogens from biological sources. This research augmentswork that ProMetic, the American Red Cross and PRDT's scientificfounders have been conducting independently for many years.
About ProMetic Life Sciences Inc.
ProMetic Life Sciences Inc. (www.prometic.com) is abiopharmaceutical company specialized in the research, development,manufacture and marketing of a variety of commercial applicationsderived from its proprietary Mimetic Ligand(TM) technology. Thistechnology is used in large-scale purification of biologics and theelimination of pathogens. ProMetic is also active in therapeuticdrug development with the mission to bring to market effective,innovative, lower cost, less toxic products for the treatment ofhematology and cancer. Its drug discovery platform is focused onreplacing complex, expensive proteins with synthetic "drug-like"protein mimetics. Headquartered in Montreal (Canada), ProMetic hasR&D facilities in the U.K., the U.S. and Canada, manufacturingfacilities in the U.K. and business development activities in theU.S., Europe, Asia and in the Middle-East.
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