AEGROS today announced a ground-breaking agreement to build a fully funded US$400m 1,000,000 litre HaemaFrac® plasma fractionation facility in Singapore, with a sterile fill and finish facility in Cambodia, to supply the Asian market, using local plasma.
The joint venture, to be called the Royal Group Plasma Fractionation (RGPF), was formed between The Royal Group of Companies (Cambodia), Fresh Start (Australia), and Aegros (Australia).
It is estimated over 2m litres of plasma are discarded every year in Asia which can’t be processed by the existing fractionators. Using the HaemaFrac® this discarded national resource can be converted into valuable Plasma Derived Medical Products (PDMP) saving lives while lowering the cost of these life-saving treatments. In addition, the group will set up new plasma collection centres and work with local Blood Collection/Transfusion centres to lift their standards to world best practices, ensuring long term sustainability/supply of these PDMP.
This project will provide an end to end turnkey solution to address the undersupply of these life-saving PDMP in Asia. Specifically, the joint venture will:
- Plasma supply – Use local collected plasma both from new collection centres and currently discarded local plasma;
- Fractionation Process – Build a HaemaFrac® facility in Singapore to convert this plasma into PDMP. This will double the volume of PDMP relative to existing process while increasing the safety of these products;
- Sterile Bottling – Build a state of the art sterile fill & finish facility in Cambodia to bottle the PDMP manufactured in Singapore. This will be the first sterile facility in the region, forming the nucleus for the biotech industry in Cambodia.
- Regulatory Approvals – Aegros will obtain regulatory approval for these facilities and the PDMP from the Singapore Health Sciences Authority (HSA), Cambodian Department of Drugs and Food (DDF) and other local regulators.
With the objective of increasing the supply of PDMP available in the Singaporean/Cambodian and Asian market at large.
Another advantage of this joint venture is the use of local plasma to manufacture these PDMP. Local plasma is rich in antibodies to local diseases. Meaning using local plasma will produce a better/more efficacious product for the local population. Finally, the project will also help Southeast Asian countries meet World Health Assembly guidelines to achieve national self-sufficiency in plasma-derived medicinal products.
Co-Founder Professor Hari Nair said today of the deal, “Our technology and IP will not just change the way Australia undertakes plasma fractionation but how plasma is fractionated globally. This deal represents Aegros’ first overseas expansion and in another world first, will use plasma currently collected in Asia which cannot be processed by the existing fractionators.”
“The Asian market represents approximately 60% of the world’s population but only represents approximately 30% of the therapeutic plasma product sales. It is a grossly undersupplied market ,” John Manusu, Co-Founder said today.
Neak Oknha Kith Meng, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of The Royal Group said today, “The world, especially Asia, has a shortage of plasma products which is impacting the well-being of so many individuals across all counties. This partnership is a significant step in the progress of health development working towards a goal to give ASEAN counties more availability of plasma treatment products.”
This HaemaFrac® facility will be owned and funded by a consortium led by The Royal Group and the Fresh Start Group. Daniel Phillips, CEO of Fresh Start Australia Pty Ltd said “We are pleased to be involved in the establishment of this groundbreaking HaemaFrac® facility as it will make therapeutic plasma products available to many Asian countries for the first time, using their own plasma, which is otherwise wasted. We see our involvement as not only a funder, but as a strategic partner to help this business reach its full potential”, he added.
The Singapore deal follows an agreement with the Queensland Government to build a 1,000,000 litre facility in Springfield, southwest of Brisbane. That project will include a state-of-the-art, HaemaFrac® plasma fractionation facility and will create some 350 high-skilled jobs in the first four years of operations.
Key statistics around the Singapore project include:
- 1,000,000L HaemaFrac® plasma fractionation plant to be built in Singapore.
- Plasma to be sourced from Asian countries that currently discard their plasma. The project will also establish plasma collections centres in Cambodia and other Asian nations to collect Plasma across Asia.
- This plasma cannot currently be used to manufacture therapeutic plasma products due to high regulatory bar for processing in EU, USA, and Australia
- However, HaemaFrac® can make safe product from this plasma due to its disposable and viral inactivation capabilities. This is not possible with current fractionation technologies.
- Therapeutic product registration will be undertaken in Singapore and Cambodia.
- A State of the Art Sterile Fill and Finish facility will be built in Cambodia. This will be the first sterile filling facility in the region and will act as a cornerstone for Cambodian biotech development.
