TransGenRx, a Baton Rouge biotech firm that produces specialized proteins, has won a contract worth up to $30 million to make human-growth hormone for Laboratorio Pablo Cassara SRL, an Argentine drug-maker.
The contract calls for TransGenRx Inc. to make 66 pounds of human-growth hormone in the next 12 to 18 months, company President William Fioretti said Wednesday.
TransGenRx will be paid roughly $1 million for every kilogram, or 2.2 pounds, of the hormone. It’s used to treat abnormally short children and adults who don’t produce enough of the hormone.
Bill Richardson, the LSU AgCenter chancellor, said TransGenRx is the first homegrown biotech company to achieve commercial success.
That achievement will help the state’s other biotech firms draw investors and help establish Louisiana’s credibility in the industry, he said.
Arthur Cooper, executive director of the Louisiana Emerging Technology Center at LSU, where TransGenRx is a tenant, described it another way.
“It will put us on the map,” Cooper said.
The deal also will put money in the AgCenter’s coffers.
Under the licensing agreement, the AgCenter receives 5 percent of TransGenRx’s sales and a 15 percent stake in the company, said Wade Baumgartner, assistant director of the AgCenter’s Office of Intellectual Property.
Sales of $30 million would generate $1.5 million in royalties for the AgCenter.
TransGenRx was founded in 2002 based on patents developed at, and licensed from, the LSU AgCenter. The company originally planned to change the genes in chickens so they could produce specialized proteins in their eggs.
But researchers realized three years ago that more time was going to be needed to perfect that production, Fioretti said. In the meantime, TransGenRx realized it could produce a few pounds of proteins a month using the more traditional cell-culture techniques.
“We can raise significant income that way while we’re still working on the chickens,” Fioretti said.
2theadvocate.com | News | TransGenRx wins hormone contract — Baton Rouge, LA
The contract calls for TransGenRx Inc. to make 66 pounds of human-growth hormone in the next 12 to 18 months, company President William Fioretti said Wednesday.
TransGenRx will be paid roughly $1 million for every kilogram, or 2.2 pounds, of the hormone. It’s used to treat abnormally short children and adults who don’t produce enough of the hormone.
Bill Richardson, the LSU AgCenter chancellor, said TransGenRx is the first homegrown biotech company to achieve commercial success.
That achievement will help the state’s other biotech firms draw investors and help establish Louisiana’s credibility in the industry, he said.
Arthur Cooper, executive director of the Louisiana Emerging Technology Center at LSU, where TransGenRx is a tenant, described it another way.
“It will put us on the map,” Cooper said.
The deal also will put money in the AgCenter’s coffers.
Under the licensing agreement, the AgCenter receives 5 percent of TransGenRx’s sales and a 15 percent stake in the company, said Wade Baumgartner, assistant director of the AgCenter’s Office of Intellectual Property.
Sales of $30 million would generate $1.5 million in royalties for the AgCenter.
TransGenRx was founded in 2002 based on patents developed at, and licensed from, the LSU AgCenter. The company originally planned to change the genes in chickens so they could produce specialized proteins in their eggs.
But researchers realized three years ago that more time was going to be needed to perfect that production, Fioretti said. In the meantime, TransGenRx realized it could produce a few pounds of proteins a month using the more traditional cell-culture techniques.
“We can raise significant income that way while we’re still working on the chickens,” Fioretti said.
2theadvocate.com | News | TransGenRx wins hormone contract — Baton Rouge, LA
