US/Egypt deal for Elafin development

US firm Proteo and its wholly-owned German subsidiary Proteo Biotech AG together with Egypt's Minapharm Pharmaceuticals and its subsidiary Rhein Minapharm Biogenetics have entered into a license agreement for clinical development, production and marketing of Elafin.

Rhein Minapharm will exclusively market Elafin in Egypt and other Middle Eastern and African countries. Proteo will receive an upfront payment, milestone-payments and royalties on net product sales. In addition, Minapharm will take over the funding of clinical research activities for the designated region. The agreement schedules the transfer of the biotechnological production process of Elafin to Cairo. This process is based on Hansenula polymorpha, a yeast technology licensed by ARTES Biotechnology GmbH of Germany.

Elafin is a protein that is produced naturally in the skin, lung and breast, protecting the respective tissue from destruction by the immune system. Its ability to block the activity of destructive enzymes that are involved in inflammatory reactions makes it a highly promising active compound for the treatment of inflammatory lung diseases or severe reperfusion injuries occurring after heart attacks, serious injuries and organ transplantation. The excellent tolerability of Elafin in human subjects was demonstrated in a Phase I clinical single dose escalating study, the companies said.