BRIEF—News from OrientPharma and Santen

Taiwan biotech OrientPharma (OEP) has signed an exclusive agreement with the Italian rare disease drug developer Chiesi to bring two drugs and one clinical stage candidate to Taiwan and Southeast Asian countries.

The candidate is PRX102 (pegunigalsidase alfa), an enzyme replacement therapy (ERT) co-developed by Chiesi and the Israeli biotech Protalix to treat Fabry disease.

The drug is in Phase III global studies.

The two drugs are Revcovi (elapegademase-lvlr) and Lamzede (velmanase alfa), the ERT therapies for adenosine deaminase severe combined immune deficiency (ADA-SCID), and alpha-mannosidosis.

Santen completes third facility in China

Japan’s Santen Pharmaceutical has completed its third facility in its “product supplier center” located in China’s Shiga prefecture.

Scheduled to start operation in 2023, the facility is expected to double the company’s Japanese made prescription eye drops to 170 million units (5ml/unit) per year to boost its global supply.

Santen's largest facility is under construction in Suzhou, China.

The Suzhou facility, announced in early 2021, will have the capacity to churn out 800 million units a year.