Protalix to expand manufacturing facility

Israeli biopharmaceutical company Protalix BioTherapeutics has signed a lease agreement for the extension of its manufacturing and research facility in Carmiel, in the north of the country. The expansion, which will triple the available production space, is designed to accommodate the anticipated commercialization of the firm's Gaucher disease treatment, prGCD.

Protalix explained that the lease, which is for an initial period of seven and half years, was not expected to affect the site's Approved Enterprise status, previously granted by the investment center of the Israeli Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor. Under the country's Encouragement of Capital Investments legislation, AE accreditation provides a 10-year period of tax exemption from the year the site began generating taxable income.

Yossi Maimon, Protalix' chief financial officer, said: "our expanded facility will provide us with the space and capacity required to bring prGCD to market and meet the anticipated demand for the drug following its anticipated approval by the United States Food and Drug Administration."