France's Genethon first non-profit organization to become a pharma producer

France-based Genethon, a not-for-profit organization which develops biotherapies for orphan genetic diseases, has received authorization from the French National Agency for Drug Safety (ANSM) to become a pharmaceutical manufacturer.

Its production center, Genethon BioProd, is authorized to produce drugs in a first for a laboratory created by the French Muscular Dystrophy Association (AFM), which supports patients with neuromuscular diseases and their parents, and financed in part by donations from France's annual AFM-Telethon which raised 94.1 million euros ($121million) in 2011.

With Genethon BioProd, the AFM-Telethon laboratory says it has the “greatest capacity for drugs for gene therapy in the world”. It is a move which Genethon, which received the Prix Galien France 2012, says strengthens its position as a world leader in the domain of biotherapies for rare diseases.