ARTES Biotechnology and Bio Farma Announce Collaboration in Vaccine Development

ARTES and Bio Farma announced they are to join forces for the development and manufacturing of vaccine candidates. The agreed collaboration involved the strength of both partners. ARTES is specialized in cell line and process development, VLP based vaccines as well as in technology transfer for pharmaceutically relevant production processes whereas Bio Farma is involved in the manufacturing of vaccines, serum and other biological products for the Indonesian domestic and international markets.

Under this commitment a first agreement for VLP based vaccine technology transfer was signed on July 1st in Bandung, Indonesia.

“We are extremely delighted about the mutually agreed collaboration. Bio Farma is a strong and reliable pharmaceutical partner and the only vaccine and antisera producer for humans in Indonesia. We are more than confident, that we along with Bio Farma will develop vaccines highly relevant for the Indonesian and neighboring markets. We expect that especially developments based on our Metavax® technology will contribute to Bio Farma´s vaccine portfolio”, Dr. Michael Piontek, founder and managing director of ARTES Biotechnology.

Metavax® is a patent protected VLP technology, based on modifications to duck hepatitis B virus. The approach elicits a highly potent immune response and therefore a broader protection than the currently available VLP approaches. ARTES´ Metavax® platform is suitable for the development and production of safe and cost-effective vaccines.

Meanwhile, Government of Indonesia, represented by Ministry of Health, Ministry of Education and Culture and Ministry of Research and Technology, fully supports this partnership and will assist in aspects of policy to accelerate the development of vaccines in Indonesia. The commitment is delivered at the National Vaccine Research Forum, on 2-3 July 2013 in Jakarta.