Kamada Ltd. (TASE: KMDA) has signed a NIS 1 million contract to supply transferrin as part of a cancer treatment about to begin clinical trials. Kamada said the contract is with a European pharmaceutical company that is the first company to initiate clinical trials for a drug that includes transferrin.
A drug undergoing clinical trials requires much higher quality raw materials than those used in drug development and animal trial stages. The commencement of clinical trials underscores the quality of Kamada’s transferrin.
“Transferrin is a substance found in the blood that carries iron to the cells,” said Kamada CEO David Tsur. “In recent years, a number of companies have begun to develop cancer drugs based on the mechanism in which transferrin carries the drug to the cancerous cell. Kamada was the largest supplier of transferrin for these development efforts.
“One of these companies has now reached the clinical trials stage, and needs much higher quality transferrin in greater quantity than previously. So far as we know, Kamada is the only company at the moment able to supply the substance at the quality needed, which means that all companies developing transferrin-based drugs are now dependent on us. We’re also dependent on them only if their trials succeed will a huge market for the product develop.”
Kamada is now in the midst of a strategic plan to obtain standard certification for the products it markets internationally, so it can expand marketing to the US and Europe, where prices are higher. The present contract is the standard certification for one of these substances.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il - on June 14, 2006
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