Entering into the alliance gives Pall marketing and distribution rights to Optim, a tool to cut late stage failures, in South East Asia. Pall already distributes, and has sold, Optim in North America and the partners are now pushing into the growing South East Asia biopharm sector.
“We are very pleased with the progress that Pall is making with Optim sales and marketing in North America and expect to see the same sort of progress in this new territory”, Alastair Smith, CEO of Avacta, said.
UK-based Avacta highlighted Singapore and South Korea as target markets but business will be pursued across the region. Pall will use its centre in Singapore to serve Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam.
Entering these counties means Avacta now has Optim distribution deals for key markets. As well as the Pall relationship in North America, Avacta works with Isogen Life Sciences in Europe, DKSH in Japan, and Cold Spring Biotech in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.
Through these relationships Avacta had, by August, received orders for 14 Optim systems during the year. Revenue at the analytical services unit, which Optim contributes to, grew by 83 per cent to £410,000 ($633,000) in the first half of the year. The gains helped Avacta half its operating loss.
The product
Expansion of the Optim range is planned to accelerate growth. Avacta will further strengthen its ties to Pall by collaborating on the product portfolio. Pall and Avacta also have a joint analytical services agreement to help biopharm understand the impact of manufacturing processes on product stability.
Optim measures stability parameters, such as the temperature a protein unfolds, to give information on the viability of the formulation early in development. Data is generated from small sample volumes, Avata claims as little as 1µl can be viable, to cut the cost of analysis.