Lonza stresses importance of IP protection in Asia
The Swiss pharma services and technology firm launched GS Xceed – the latest version of its GS Expression system – last week, highlighting Asia as a key market for the product and stressing the importance of effective IP protection.
Spokeswoman Melanie Disa told in-Pharmatechnologist.com that: “Previously, the original GS System was not available in Asia due to the lack of IP coverage for that territory. GS Xceed has patent coverage in all major pharmaceutical and biotechnology markets.”
She went on to say that “Biopharmaceutical development both for novel compounds as well as biosimilars is a growing market in Asia, specifically, China, India and Korea” and added that – in addition to seeing growing demand form local players – Lonza is seeing demand from multinationals expanding in the region.
“Many of our large pharmaceutical customers have recently opened R&D centers in China. They want to be able to use our latest GS Expression System in all their labs for development of products for both the local market as well as the rest of the world.
“IP is important to Lonza. Therefore, like other life science companies, we protect our IP through various approaches in Asia and elsewhere.”
Companies – in Asia or elsewhere – that want to test Lonza’s claim the new system can accelerate cell line development by 6 weeks and increase yields can do so under a special licensed Disa continued.
“Xceed is available for initial evaluation under a Research Evaluation Agreement. Once a product has progressed to the stage of IND filing, a GS Commercial Licenses must be obtained to allow for clinical development and commercialization. The license should be in place by the start of human clinical trials."
