Export Award Win For Irl Biopharm - Multi Million Dollar Business Attacking Cancer
Auckland, May 1, 2003 -- IRL BioPharm, highly specialised manufacturer of the “warheads” for revolutionary new
anti-cancer drugs, has won a Trade New Zealand Export Award for growing annual foreign exchange earnings to $11 million
in just four years of business.
(Note to editors: Media are invited to attend the presentation of the Trade New Zealand Export Award to IRL BioPharm by
the Minister of Research Science and Technology, the Hon. Pete Hodgson, on Thursday May 1 at 3.45pm, at the McDiarmid
Centre within Industrial Research's Gracefield Site, Gracefield Road, Lower Hutt.)
General Manager Denis Malone says IRL BioPharm’s “warheads” are highly toxic compounds produced by fermentation of
specific soil micro-organisms under highly controlled conditions. These warheads – which sell for thousands of dollars a
gram - are chemically linked to antibodies specific to a particular type of cancer.
Mr Malone says the linked warhead antibody is harmless to normal human cells (unlike chemotherapy), but when it finds
and attaches to a cancer cell, the warhead is released and destroys the cell.
IRL BioPharm’s clients are largely US and UK based biotech companies who are developing and trialling these new
anti-cancer drugs. They range from large pharmaceutical multinationals like GlaxoSmithKline through to innovative, small
molecule anti-cancer drug innovators such as ImmunoGen in the USA.
“This target market is both focused and growing,” says Mr Malone. “The number of biotech companies researching antibody
drug conjugates has grown from a handful in the late 1990s to well over 40 in the US alone. With most of these firms
still in the discovery phase of identifying cancer targets, our prospective client base is set to expand rapidly.”
IRL BioPharm was started in 1999 when its parent company Industrial Research Ltd anticipated the emergence of a market
for these toxic compounds. Mr Malone says more than $10 million has been invested to make IRL BioPharm’s operations and
facilities world class, capable of producing the compounds in sufficient quantities and in accordance with strict
international regulations protecting human health and the environment. “By foreseeing this market we stole the lead on
potential competitors and in the past several years have established a track record of success. We have a reputation for
being able to do the difficult work. We’ve got really good quality systems and when a client works with us there is a
very high level of interaction. We present a lot of those New Zealand qualities of working well with people and working
hard for them, being straight and honest. A lot of our clients prefer to work with us because of that.”
IRL BioPharm has a staff of 45. The strategic planning capability is in Auckland, the scientific facilities in
Gracefield just out of Wellington, marketing and sales resource in the UK and agents in the US.
“We have been fortunate to attract really good people with the highly specialist skills we require,” says Mr Malone. The
work is interesting and challenging and it’s exciting being a crucial part of what will hopefully be breakthrough
technologies – a lot of staff are motivated by the fact that we are working on some of the world’s leading edge
anti-cancer projects.”
Mr Malone says growing sufficient quantities of the micro-organism to produce useful amounts of material is a
technically demanding task. IRL BioPharm starts with a test-tube containing a colony of the micro-organisms and scales
this up to a large population in a thousand litres of fermentation broth.
“Producing the compound of interest is an exquisitely demanding balancing act that requires high levels of skill and
absolute state of the art control of all aspects of the growing environment and fermentation media composition,” he
says.
“Typically a successful run produces 50 to 100 grams of the desired toxic compound from a tonne of fermentation media.
The finished compound sells for $20,000 per gram.”
Trade New Zealand Account Manager Jo McEvoy congratulated IRL BioPharm on its Export Award win, saying the company has
achieved outstanding foreign exchange growth since it was established in 1999.
“In less than five years of business IRL BioPharm has created a world leading biotech business, almost entirely export
focused. They are part of a new wave of New Zealand biotech companies that are performing extremely well in highly
specialised niches around the world.”
Denis Malone says IRL BioPharm is working to expand both the number of clients it works with and the range of compounds
it produces. It is also planning to introduce new services.
“We have almost finished a new facility at Gracefield which will enable us to offer clients chemical modifications as
well as molecule modifications. This expansion in our capability will make us more of a one-stop shop for clients.
“We are projecting that we could grow annual exports to $30 million in three to four years. It’s an exciting business to
be in.”