GenMar Pharma is building a new production facility on the Vion site in Buchloe/Ostallgäu. The facility will produce raw material from bovine lungs for the inhaled emergency treatment of respiratory distress syndrome.
GenMar Pharma GmbH, based in Oberhaching near Munich, is building a state-of-the-art biotechnology production facility on the premises of the Vion Food Group in Buchloe/Ostallgäu. This means that a production facility for the active ingredient surfactant will be built at one of Bavaria’s largest cattle slaughterhouses – for the production of life-saving drugs for the treatment of respiratory distress syndrome (RDS) in premature babies. ‘This project not only strengthens the care of premature babies worldwide, but also underlines Bavaria’s role in biotechnology,’ said GenMar CEO Fabian Wendel at the presentation of the project in Buchloe today.
RDS (Respiratory Distress Syndrome) is one of the main causes of death among the more than 15 million premature babies born worldwide each year. Although the natural surfactant is produced in the foetal lung tissue from the 25th week of pregnancy, it is only from the 35th week that it is produced in sufficient quantities to ensure that the baby’s lungs function independently. This means that premature babies with a birth weight of less than 1.500 grams are particularly at risk. Until now, doctors have only been able to administer the vital substance to premature babies via a probe or tube. After intensive research, a gentler and safer procedure has now been developed – for inhalation administration.
This pioneering innovation is the result of a close partnership between the Irish company Aerogon Pharma Limited and Lyomark Pharma, based in Oberhaching, joint shareholders of GenMar Pharma GmbH. Their development of an inhaled dosage form is based on Lyomark’s surfactant Alveofact®. As the world’s leading standard product for the treatment of RDS, the drug is administered by intubation to premature infants in acute cases immediately after birth. The pharmaceutical company and the Vion Food Group have been working together since 2006 to provide the raw material from bovine lungs, which is also needed for this purpose.
“The future GenMar Pharma GmbH production facility on the site of our cattle slaughterhouse in Buchloe is exemplary for the role of natural food in pharmacological research,’ says Maria Zinnecker, district administrator of the Ostallgäu district. ’This close cooperation between our Bavarian food production and a company that produces new medicines is not only an example of how by-products of livestock farming are used. It is also of great importance for healthcare and an outstanding example of cross-industry cooperation.”