CollPlant Holdings Ltd. (TASE: CLPT) is in talks with Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE) and Edwards Pharmaceuticals Inc. over feasibility agreements for joint product development. If the agreements are signed and the products are appropriate, they can lead to joint development deals worth tens of millions of dollars. Those deals can be signed in the range of a year. The company declined to respond to the report.
The negotiations with Pfizer are more advanced, and a deal can be signed within a month. The product being discussed with Pfizer is a wound treatment that Collplant is currently developing on its own. Pfizer recently bought Wyeth, which had significant operations in that area.
The talks with Edwards are for an existing cardiology product, which today contains collagen produced from pig tissue, which Collplant hopes to replace. Edwards Pharmaceuticals is a cardiology products company. Among its offerings is a valve, a product which was acquired from Israeli company PVT.
Under the deal with Edwards, if signed, the companies will jointly develop the product, and Edwards will receive the distribution rights.
Collplant produces collagen though genetically engineered tobacco plants.
In August, CollPlant announced that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said its wound treatment product will not go through the short procedure for medical devices (510k), rather the longer track (PMA). The decision means several more years of clinical trials and development until the company's products will reach the market and generate consistent sales.
CollPlant has several products under development. Vergenix Wound Dressing is wound care sheet composed of pure recombinant human collagen scaffold that provides a moist wound healing environment. The Vergenix Wound Gel is an injectable form of the dressing for deep wounds. The products are designed to treat acute and chronic wounds, such as pressure ulcers, venous ulcers, diabetic ulcers, surgical wounds, abrasions, and second-degree burns.
CollPlant's share price rose 5.1% by midday to NIS 1.47, giving a market cap of NIS 149 million.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on October 25, 2010
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2010