Australian pharmaceutical firm to start operations from Hal Far

Australian pharmaceutical firm Starpharma is to start operating from a factory at Hal Far in June, as it aims to target and penetrate markets worldwide, Economic Services Minister Josef Bonnici said.

Starpharma's primary objective will be to focus on research and development of new products for worldwide patenting, and therefore, a considerable investment is being injected in this area.

Total investment to date has amounted to around €2 million, and further investments of approximately €3 million are anticipated over the next three years, Prof. Bonnici told The Times.

All equipment and facilities have already been installed and comply with strict international pharmaceutical standards.

Starpharma will specialise in the production of 'modified release products'.

This technology is related to controlled release oral doses: instead of administering two or three doses per day, as is the case for conventional pharmaceutical products, the product is modified to enable a once-a-day administration.

This will be possible due to close collaboration and business ties with Valpharma - an Italian company, worldwide leader in the research, development and industrial production of high technology pharmaceuticals.

Prof. Bonnici explained that Starpharma has already recruited its managerial staff and will initially have a staff complement of 25. That complement is envisaged to rise to around 60 employees in the next few years.

Melbourne-based Starpharma is a globally networked research and development group of companies.

It began operations in 1996 aided by $5 million in capital raised through private investors. Starpharma has a global research network consisting of 10 local and 14 international research groups - nine in the US, two in Europe and three in Australia.

The Starpharma Group was established to commercialise technology discovered at the Biomolecular Research Institute in Melbourne, Australia, to which it has acquired exclusive world-wide rights.

The technology resulted in drugs which were active against a broad range of viruses and other human diseases for which current therapies are inadequate.

It was announced recently that another pharmaceutical firm, Arrow Pharm Malta Limited, is due to start regular production of generic drugs in June, with an investment expected to exceed Lm3 million.

Prof. Bonnici recently said that the Advisory Council, which provides strategic advice to the Malta Enterprise board, had specifically identified the pharmaceutical sector as having particular potential for Malta.