Octapharma News January 11th, 2006

January 11th, 2006

New state-of-the-art laboratories for the R&D Virus & Prion Validation (VPV) Department developed at FIZ, Germany

Octapharma’s Virus & Prion Validation (VPV) Department was established at Georg-Speyer-Haus (GSH) in Frankfurt am Main in 1993. Since then, this Research & Development Unit has, under Dr. Lothar Biesert’s management, acquired the important Good Laboratory Practice (GLP) license and has been responsible for the pathogenic safety evaluation of all our processes and products. Based on a large number of validation studies and together with GSH’s international reputation in the field of pathogen research, the VPV Department has contributed significantly to support almost 500 marketing authorisations worldwide over the last 13 years.

Octapharma’s continuous efforts in safeguarding the large product portfolio has made it necessary to further expand the laboratory capacity in this field and follow the regulatory requirements and technical infrastructure developments valid for safety class 2 and 3 facilities. This was unfortunately not possible at GSH and, thus, the VPV Department was relocated to Frankfurter Innovationszentrum (FIZ), as of December 2005.

FIZ has rapidly become an important address for innovation, research and economic growth in Frankfurt am Main and Hesse. The companies residing on the premises include those from diverse regions of the World such as the US , UK , India , Australia , Russia , and of course, Germany . This international business hub provides direct access to knowledge, capital and transport infrastructures in Europe . The facilities are tailored to support work in life sciences and provide opportunities for close networking with international pharmaceutical, chemical and biotechnical branches of young and medium sized firms.

The excellent planning and finalisation of the new facilities were managed by our Engineering Department in close collaboration with the VPV staff and Octapharma can now proudly present new state-of-the-art laboratories for pathogen research at FIZ. We wish Dr. Lothar Biesert and his crew the very best for their important work in the future, a task rooted in our Company’s mission – “The Safe & Optimal Use of Plasma”.