CORK-BASED BIOTECH group Alimentary Health has joined forces with Czech pharma business Norgine to develop medicinal products for gastro-intestinal conditions using the Irish company’s technology.
The alliance will see both sides evaluating certain Alimentary Health technology. If successful in developing medicines to treat or manage gastro-intestinal conditions, Norgine will have the option to negotiate a licence to commercialise the technology.
The Cork business, spun out from UCC’s Alimentary Pharma-biotic Centre, will receive an upfront payment at the outset of the development partnership and is in line for other milestone payments if the programme hits certain targets.
The company would not disclose yesterday the scale of these payments.
Alimentary Health has already licensed a probiotic strain to consumer goods giant Procter Gamble for an over the counter treatment for irritable bowel syndrome available in supermarkets across the United States. However, it feels there is potential for a pharmaceutical approach.
“Technology has a role to play in pharmaceutical development,” said Alimentary Health chief executive Barry Kiely.
“There is a family of probiotic strains which we have identified, and in their native form, these have the capability to manage disease. We need to get into the components at the heart of the strains to try to develop medicines to deal with more serious conditions.”
Dr Kiely said the company had focused on the pharma area for some time. It knew Norgine for quite a few years and shared the same scientific principles with the Czech group.
“We both feel this is worth looking at,” he said.
Dr Kiely said Norgine was a recognised leader in the commercialisation of pharmaceutical products for gastro-intestinal conditions.
“We believe that the full potential of probiotic technology is yet to be tapped,” he said.
Norgine vice-president of corporate and business development Paul Pay said the research collaboration was significant “as it signals our first move into the growing field of probiotics”.
