LANGENFELD, Germany & TEHRAN, Iran—ARTES Biotechnology and BioSun Pharmed announced in early November that they would join forces for the development and manufacturing of a human papilloma virus (HPV) vaccine in Iran.

 

The long-term collaboration involves “the strength of both partners,” the companies say. ARTES specializes in cell line and process development of virus-like particle (VLP)-based vaccines and in technology transfer for pharmaceutically relevant production processes.

 

BioSun is involved in the manufacturing of high-quality and safe vaccines and biopharmaceutical products for the domestic and international markets.

 

“We are extremely delighted about the mutually agreed collaboration. This agreement is the next step in ARTES’ strategy to develop from a service provider for process development to a partner for full pharmaceutical product development,” said Dr. Michael Piontek, founder and managing director of ARTES Biotechnology.

 

For the first time, ARTES will be responsible for process development of active pharmaceutical ingredient work, formulation, quality control and supply of preclinical test material. In addition, ARTES will be engaged in design of the manufacturing site at BioSun and in selection of third parties for GMP manufacturing.

 

“I am really pleased that after technical and commercial discussions, we could finally make collaboration agreement with a well-known and reliable partner for not only producing pre-master cell banks but also for co-developments of our mutual interested products. Our mission is producing high quality and affordable vaccines and biotech products improving health level of community,” said Dr. Mohammad Taghavian, managing director of Biosun.

 

Financial details of this agreement were not disclosed.       

 

HPV is the most common sexually transmitted infection globally. Most people are infected at some point in their lives. There are approximately 79 million men/women actively infected with the virus at any point in time. Annually, there are 14 million newly diagnosed cases of HPV. HPV infection can cause in warts or precancerous lesions. The precancerous lesions increase the risk of cancer.

 

In 2012, about 270,000 women died from cervical cancer, more than 85 percent of these deaths occurring in low and middle income countries.