EXCLUSIVE: The firm is looking to produce its drug to treat a rare type of blood cancer only in Taiwan, and has nearly obtained marketing approval from Europe

Taipei Times
Date: Dec 12, 2018
By: Ted Chen  /  Staff reporter, in TAICHUNG

PharmaEssentia Corp (藥華醫藥) yesterday held a commencement ceremony for a new fill-and-finish facility as it forges ahead with mass production and commercialization of ropeginterferon alfa-2b (Ropeg), its biologic drug to treat polycythemia vera, a rare type of blood cancer.

The facility in the company’s EU Good Manufacturing Practice-certified manufacturing plant in Taichung’s Central Taiwan Science Park is capable of making 26,000 prefilled vials of Ropeg daily.

The vial production line is to use automated filling line machines made by Optima Pharma GmbH, a leading German supplier, to ensure protection against contamination for aseptic filling, the company said.

“The filling plant is the culmination of the company’s 15-year history and represents the final piece of the puzzle in our quest to take total control of Ropeg as its development concludes,” PharmaEssentia chairwoman Jan Ching-leou (詹青柳) said in her address.
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