BURROUGHS WELLCOME/GENETICS INSTITUTE WILL MANUFACTURE WELLFERON and recombinant tissue plasminogen activator (TPA) under a joint venture agreement announced Sept. 9. "Genetics Institute and Burroughs Wellcome will have equal ownership interests in the joint venture," the release notes. The financial arrangements of the joint venture, to be called WelGen Manufacturing, Inc., were not disclosed. The manufacturing venture will be headquartered in a planned 100,000 sq. ft. facility "to be built in the New England area," the release states. Genetics Institute said it is looking at sites in the eastern Massachusetts/Rhode Island vicinity. "The companies expect to select a plant site within two months and anticipate completion of the facility in 1989," the two firms noted. The joint venture is earmarking $30 mil. to cover construction costs of the plant/headquarters facility. According to the joint release, the plant will provide Genetics Institute and Burroughs Wellcome "with one of the world's largest manufacturing facilities for human pharmaceutical products based on genetic engineering and biotechnology." Burroughs Wellcome said it plans to manufacture "all its biotechnology products at the plant." The company's two lead biotech products are (1) Wellferon, a natural mixture of alpha interferons, and (2) the anti-thrombolytic agent, tissue plasminogen activator. Burroughs Wellcome is approaching an NDA filing in the U.S. for Wellferon in hairy cell leukemia, while TPA is now in early clinical evaluation. Wellferon is currently produced in the U.K. In addition to the Burroughs Wellcome products, Genetics Institute said its "proprietary products as well as certain products developed by the company for collaborative partners" will be manufactured at the facility. Burroughs Wellcome's TPA is licensed from Genetics Institute. The Cambridge, Massachusetts-based biotech firm also has a collaborative agreement with Baxter Travenol covering biosynthetic Factor VIII, which is expected to enter clinical trials in early 1987, and development agreements with Chugai in Japan and Boehringer Mannheim in West Germany for recombinant erythropoietin. An agreement with Sandoz covering interleukin-2 is currently on hold, Genetics Institute said, due to both clinical and patent considerations. The joint venture is "part of Genetic Institute's planned development into a fully integrated pharmaceutical company," the biotech firm added.
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