Hemispherx signs US distribution deals as it preps to relaunch wart drug in US

Hemispherx Biopharma has signed extended US distribution agreements as part of efforts to relaunch Alferon N Injection, a genital wart treatment it pulled in 2008 after production costs soared.

The biotech announced deals with pharmacy chain Armada Health Care and specialty distributor BioRidge Pharma on Monday, explaining that the two year extensions will focus solely on bringing Alferon N Injection back to the US market.

Previously, the firm said Armada would also be involved in distributing the wart treatment in South American markets.

The news comes just months after Hemispherx completed upgrades at its manufacturing facility in New Brunswick, New Jersey.

It spent $8m (€7.1m) to replace six 100 litre reactors with a single 600 litre unit, which it said had allowed to cut the manpower needed to make the drug by 80%.

This work was acknowledged as important by Ryan Oligino, Executive Vice President Manufacturer Relations at Armada Health Care.

"We have closely followed Hemispherx progress in its major upgrade of the Alferon manufacturing facility and we are pleased that this is now complete and we can continue to work on preparing for the re-launch of Alferon N Injection.”

Wayne Springate, Senior Vice President of Operations for Hemispherx, echoed this adding that: “We hope to be able to supply greater volumes of product to the market than in the past.

We are also establishing an in-house team to support Armada and to establish other sales channels for Alferon N Injection.”

Springate added that the firm is also seeking partners to help it sell the genital wart treatment on Europe, Latin America and Asia.