Cangene announces development of Immune Globulin Intravenous product

Cangene Corporation today announces that it is developing an Immune Globulin Intravenous product, commonly known as IGIV. IGIV is a widely used anti-infective with a variety of indications including treating primary immune deficiency, immune thrombocytopenic purpura and other inflammatory and autoimmune diseases. A number of competitors share an estimated annualized global market of $4.5 billion and industry forecasts are for continued growth based on expanded applications. This is the product included but unidentified in Cangene's pipeline for the last two years. Cangene is increasing its R&D activities on this product as it moves toward clinical development. The Company is currently scaling up the process in order to begin manufacturing product for clinical trials. The process for manufacturing this product will incorporate a different platform technology for plasma fractionation than the one the Company uses for its specialty hyperimmune products such as WinRho(R) SDF and HepaGam B(R). The Company has already begun to build an inventory of the source plasma needed for the manufacture IGIV to be used in clinical trials, which are expected to begin in 2011. Source plasma differs from the specialty plasma Cangene uses to manufacture its hyperimmune products in that it has not been selected for the presence of specific antibodies.

"The potential uses of IGIV continue to expand. We believe this product has great potential for us and that it would be a good addition to our hospital-based commercial product line-up. We are also working with some new technology for manufacturing this product, which may in turn be used for future products," said Dr. John Langstaff, Cangene's president and CEO.