A state-of-the-art research and development facility,
using world class medical research to find solutions for a
range of serious illnesses, has opened in West
Auckland.
Some of the life changing human trials
managed by the team at Douglas Innovation
include treatments for inflammatory bowel disease, cervical
dysplasia and a very encouraging medicinal candidate helping
those with treatment resistant depression.
Managing
Director Jeff Douglas says, “The team at Douglas
Innovation works with university researchers and clinicians
from around the globe. They translate this research into
formulations and manage clinical studies that assess safety
and effectiveness in trial groups of
patients”.
“We will eventually out-license those
results to larger pharmaceutical companies for
commercialisation” he says.
Mr Douglas says this
new facility is central to the company’s mission of
‘Improving Lives’ and is very hopeful many people will
benefit from the medical solutions it uncovers for serious
unmet medical needs.
Douglas Pharmaceutical’s Chief
Scientific Officer, Dr Peter Surman says “Our expertise is
finding new uses for well-established medicines, and we are
cutting our teeth with peptides and enzymes. We have a good
success rate registering medicines with the United States
FDA and European Union regulatory authorities and offer this
service together with our formulation, clinical and medical
affairs support services”.
The $50MM Douglas
Innovation centre is part of the long-established Douglas
Pharmaceuticals company. The three story, 4,500sq metre
building has been 18 months in construction. It employs 100
people and includes laboratory, pilot scale product
development suites, commercial manufacturing rooms which can
handle highly potent and cytotoxic products and office
space. Manufacturing capabilities include soft gelatine
encapsulation, liquids, creams, and modified release oral
dosage forms.
Douglas Pharmaceuticals is
New Zealand’s largest privately owned pharmaceutical and
healthcare company. It was founded in 1967 by pharmacist Sir
Graeme Douglas and today employs over 700 people and exports
to over 40 countries around the world.
The Douglas
mission is to ‘Improve Lives’ by providing innovative,
competitive, and high-quality healthcare solutions.
Douglas’ core business is producing prescription drugs for
areas including oncology, dermatology, the central nervous
system, and immunology. Douglas develops, manufactures, and
distributes novel and generic products, with a preference
for those where there is a strong intellectual property
position as well as technical complexity in areas of high
unmet need.
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