Contract Awarded for Manufacture of a Ricin Antitoxin

MicroPharm Limited is pleased to announce the award of a contract offered by the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) on behalf of the Ministry of Defence (MOD) to manufacture a ricin antitoxin.
The contract is valued at up to £7 million for the production of ovine antibodies to ricin, their further processing and manufacture into a product suitable for human use.
Currently there is no licensed antitoxin for ricin available. This research could pave the way for the development of a viable ricin antitoxin that is suitable for human use in the coming years.
Professor John Landon (Chairman, MicroPharm) commented “We are delighted to have been successful in winning this contract following a detailed tendering exercise and robust evaluation of MicroPharm’s facilities, procedures and capabilities. I think it is a tremendous vote of confidence in the quality of our staff and builds on our strong scientific competence and expertise built up over many years in the development and production of polyclonal immunotherapeutics.”
Mr Ian Cameron (Chief Executive Officer, MicroPharm) added “It is a proud moment for our company which from our base in West Wales is involved in leading edge discovery and development activities in a range of projects. The contract award builds on that tradition and we expect will also lead to the creation of several new positions within the company.”

Posted on: Tuesday, 23rd August 2016