Agennix Inc. and DSM Pharmaceutical Products, a business group of DSM N.V., today jointly announced the opening of a new manufacturing facility on DSM’s fermentation site in Capua, Italy.

The facility, located just north of Naples, is dedicated to the commercial production of pharmaceutical grade recombinant human lactoferrin (rhLF). RhLF is a protein found naturally in milk and other endocrine secretions that plays an essential role in stimulating the body’s immune system to fight cancer and infections, and protects against asthma and other allergic diseases.

"This project clearly reflects DSM's strategic choice to make further investments in the Life Science industry in general and in biotechnology in particular," said Henk Numan, President of DSM Pharmaceutical Products. “Fermentation is one of DSM’s core technologies and is widely applied in a variety of pharmaceuticals. The opening of the new facility is the reward for hard work by a dedicated project team that worked in very close collaboration with Agennix. We are proud of this success and we are looking forward to continuing the excellent collaboration with Agennix.”

“We are very pleased with our collaboration with DSM Pharmaceutical Products,” said Rick Barsky, Chief Executive Officer of Agennix. “The opening of this facility is an important milestone in Agennix’s development of rhLF. It will expand our manufacturing capacity from tens of kilos to tons.”

Agennix
Agennix is a privately owned Houston-based biopharmaceutical company. It is the world leader in the development of recombinant human lactoferrin (rhLF), a natural immuno-stimulatory and anti-inflammatory protein, and a variety of patented peptides. RhLF has been administered to over 275 people without a single drug-related serious adverse event, and has demonstrated potency in treating cancer, asthma and infections.

Agennix is the first and only company to manufacture substantial quantities of human lactoferrin and holds global patents on its technology, with 40 issued patents and 65 patents pending. In 2002, Agennix will initiate or complete seven Phase II clinical trials in indications including the treatment of cancer, the treatment of infections in chemotherapy patients, and the treatment of asthma.

DSM
DSM is active worldwide in life science products, performance materials and industrial chemicals. The group has annual sales of close to EUR 6 billion and employs about 20,000 people at more than 200 sites across the world.

DSM ranks among the global leaders in many of its fields. The company’s strategic aim is to grow its sales – partly through acquisitions – to a level of approx. EUR 10 billion by 2005. By that time at least 80% of sales should be generated by specialties, i.e. advanced chemical and biotechnological products for the life science industry and performance materials. This strategy represents a continuation of the company’s ongoing transformation and concentration on global leadership positions in high-added-value activities characterized by high growth and more stable profit levels.

DSM Pharmaceutical Products
The newly formed DSM Pharmaceutical Products business group has annual sales of more than EUR 500 million and production and R&D sites around the world. DSM Pharmaceutical Products employs around 3,000 people worldwide. With a unique range of technologies and state-of-the-art production facilities, DSM Pharmaceutical Products is the only independent contract manufacturer in the world who combines the production of biopharmaceutical APIs, advanced intermediates and chemically synthesized APIs with the production of sterile dosage forms.