Pfenex and Alvogen are expanding their collaboration to develop and commercialize Pfenex’s lead product candidate, PF708, a proprietary teriparatide therapeutic equivalent candidate to Eli Lilly & Company’s Forteo/Forsteo, to the EU, to certain countries in Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and ROW territories. This collaboration leverages Alvogen’s established international experience and expertise in regulatory, IP and supply chain activities, as well as its established network of specialty marketing and sales pharmaceutical companies in these regions.
 
Subject to applicable regulatory approvals, PF708 will be commercialized in Europe and Switzerland by Theramex; in MENA by SAJA; and in ROW by Alvogen’s current and/or future commercialization partners. Under the terms of the agreements, Alvogen will be responsible for the local activities through Theramex, SAJA and its other commercialization partners and for overseeing any clinical development, regulatory, litigation, commercial manufacturing and commercialization.
 
“Collaborating with Alvogen in Europe, MENA and ROW centralizes the development, regulatory and commercialization activities of PF708 and leverages Alvogen’s global supply chain and market access experience to maximize potential of commercial success in these markets,” said Eef Schimmelpennink, chief executive officer, Pfenex. “Combining these operational capabilities with the favorable financial terms of the agreements, makes partnering on regional commercialization for PF708 the optimal strategy. We believe working with Alvogen, coupled with the established and credible commercial partnerships with Theramex, Tamer Group (SAJA) and its other commercialization partners significantly enhances our commercialization strategy. We chose to expand our relationship with Alvogen on PF708 because the overall deal terms proposed were superior to the other regional players that we considered.”
 
Robert Wessman, chief executive officer, Alvogen, said, “We continue to be excited by the market opportunity that PF708 offers as a therapeutic equivalent candidate to Forteo. We believe this new collaboration in the EU, MENA and ROW will allow us to leverage our commercialization efforts in the U.S. and capture a larger piece of the teriparatide global market, which was approximately $1.6 billion in global sales in 2018.”