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Pfizer stakes a claim in plant cell–made biopharmaceuticals

Nature Biotechnology volume 28, pages 107–108 (2010)Cite this article

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Protalix has already collected $65 million from the deal, which gives New York–based Pfizer worldwide rights to prGCD, excluding Israel, and could earn another $50 million in milestones. Protalix will continue to manufacture the drug, which it produces in carrot cells, pay 40% of all expenses going forward and receive the same percentage of revenues in return. The company's prGCD will compete with Genzyme's Ceredase (alglucerase), a form of the enzyme beta-glucocerebrosidase purified from human placental tissue that is modified to be terminated with mannose, and Cerezyme (imiglucerase), a recombinant human beta-glucocerebrosidase with a His495→Arg substitution and the same sugar modification. Both of Genzyme's products are indicated for the treatment of Gaucher's disease, a rare lysosomal storage disorder resulting from a hereditary deficiency in the glucocerebrosidase enzyme. Gaucher's disease is the most prevalent among the group of lysosomal storage disorders, which have been a historic focus for Genzyme in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

This is Pfizer's first move into the area of rare and neglected diseases, the result of a process the company began a year ago to identify such opportunities. “Protalix's name and technology platform and their work in Gaucher's disease came to the top of that list. We approached them in the middle of last year and things moved fairly quickly,” says Andrew Curtis, biosimilar and orphan drugs director for Pfizer's established products business.

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  1. Cambridge, Massachusetts

    Mark Ratner

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Ratner, M. Pfizer stakes a claim in plant cell–made biopharmaceuticals. Nat Biotechnol 28, 107–108 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/nbt0210-107

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