Replies to post #8887 on GTC Biotherapeutics (fka GTCB)

[Old student]

"It is worth noting that many moons ago GTC had programs with Centocor (now JNJ) and Abbott to make Remicade and Humira respectivly, both of which progressed to having animals which successfully produced the drugs."

If these goats are still alive whose property would they be?

If they are the property of GTC, and the product is good, GTC could ramp up production rather quickly as a FOB - or am I just wishfully thinking?

[rustyboy]

Quantumdot:

Sorry for the late reply, I check in when I can. My guess is that in both cases the decision makers at JNJ and Abbott went with the industry standard 'cell culture' because they wanted to avoid the additional risks of using a novel manufacturing method. (Even though it would have required much less capital and been scalable with transgenic production :>) ...but why worry about significantly lower capital costs when one is mainly concerned with just getting a drug on the market?)

In addition, it's possible that these programs were started as an insurance policy in case the companies could not produce those products in volume in cell culture, kind of like where Merrimack and Pharmathene find themselves. The only reason I mentioned the JNJ and Abbot history was to point out that GTC already has a fair amount of experience with monoclonals which should be helpful regarding future 'biosimilars'.