New Zealand Pharmaceuticals, the specialty biopharmaceuticals manufacturer, is researching ways to use alternative raw materials in the manufacture of new products due to a potential shortage of bile supply from cows.
The 45-year-old company was originally set up by a consortium of New Zealand meat companies to extract and purify biochemicals from meat processing by-products. Its first products were pharmaceutical intermediaries for the global healthcare market, extracted from cow and sheep bile.
The Manawatu-based company is best known for making high purity bile acids, which comprise the majority of turnover. It’s the world’s second-largest manufacturer of cholic acid, which is used in a range of pharmaceutical and diagnostic applications such as treatments for liver disease.
After Andy Lewis took over the chief executive role in 2010 he decided the company, which now has 150 staff in New Zealand and the UK, had got too diversified and needed to “defend on bile acids”. His strategy involves developing new bile acids which are used in modern western medicines and traditional Chinese (Eastern) medicines.
An NZP business development scientist spent two years travelling the world talking to drug companies and research groups to identify bile acids being evaluated for new therapeutic uses as varied as oncology, neurodegenerative and metabolic disorders including type . . .