Kiwi drug treatment ready for the big stage

Drug research has the potential to keep high paying jobs in New Zealand, says CoDa chief executive Brad Duft. File photo / Dean Purcell

A drug co-invented by a University of Auckland researcher and part funded by a New Zealand venture capital company is about to take the next step on the path to gaining a foothold in the global 'wound-healing' market.

The drug is called Nexagon and it is applied to wounds that are difficult to heal, especially leg ulcers.

Developed by biotech company CoDa Therapeutics, which has one of its offices in Auckland, Nexagon is also backed by local venture capital money.

The drug is about to enter the crucial 'phase three' stage of clinical trials, where its effectiveness will be pitched against existing methods of wound treatment in hundreds of patients.

The company says past therapeutic wound treatments have largely been ineffective, but Nexagon works differently by using a 'blocking technology' shown to be particularly good in helping with chronic and slow-to-heal wounds.

If this next round of trials is successful, the drug could be available as an approved medicine by late 2013.

The drug's concept was partially developed University of Auckland's Colin Green.

Healing of "chronic venous ulcers" was not usually seen until at least 12 weeks or longer with current treatments, said the company. This new drug treatment - which is applied topically to the wounds - had shwoed a 31 per cent incidence of complete healding at four weeks.

Company president and CEO Brad Duft said CoDa's links to New Zealand had been "a significant component in the company's success".

He said that even if CoDa's manufacturing and marketing the drug was done overseas, the research arm of the company is still based here - so the company is still paying for research jobs here.

Director of Auckland's Maurice Wilkins Centre for Molecular Biodiscovery, associate professor Rod Dunbar, said that even if New Zealand biotech companies did not manufacture here, they were still a great export industry - exporting knowledge.

Dunbar said it was similar to Fisher & Paykel retaining engineering services in new Zealand and intellectual property resources, while manufacturing and distribution was based offshore.

Despite this, there was a lot of potential for pharmaceutical manufacturing to expand in New Zealand, with a lot of work now being done trying to retain more of the "value chain" here.

Intellectual property was extremely important to be developed here in New Zealand, said Dunbar and was a 'weightless export'.

"We are trying to encourage people to join up the dots between the research and manufacturing sectors in, so we're very keen to see the companies who do manufacture drugs here - if we're ambitious why not?"


CoDa Therapeutics