Cobra Biomanufacturing Plc, the international manufacturer of biopharmaceuticals, announces that it has extended its manufacturing agreement and intends to form a joint venture with ViroMed Co. Ltd (South Korea), a specialist in the development of DNA and protein-based therapeutics.

The extended collaboration includes a long term research, development and technical consultancy agreement for all ViroMed products. The agreement will provide ViroMed with guaranteed process development and manufacturing resources.

Additionally, the companies have signed a memorandum of understanding to explore the potential of establishing a joint venture commercial scale biomanufacturing company that would enable the JV Company to manufacture ViroMed products for commercial supply, at the joint venture's new facilities.

These agreements extend the manufacturing collaboration announced in June 2008, under which Cobrabio will manufacture ViroMed's plasmid DNA therapeutic, VM206RY, for the treatment of tumours expressing Her2/neu.

Cobrabio has a long history of successful DNA projects, having been the first company to develop and gain cGMP standard DNA manufacture in Europe. Cobrabio has delivered over 30 cGMP-standard DNA manufacturing projects in the last decade, meeting consistently high levels of excellence and demonstrating an unrivalled degree of expertise.

Simon Saxby, CEO of Cobra Biomanufacturing said: "The further development of our partnership with ViroMed is a very positive step forward for Cobrabio, providing a strong medium to long term business forecast. Having worked closely with ViroMed to develop a successful manufacturing process for its plasmid DNA product we are delighted to enter into a long term agreement, with a broad scope that will bring significant benefits to both parties."

Dr. Sunyoung Kim, CEO of ViroMed Co., Ltd. said: "This collaboration agreement with Cobrabio will provide quality delivery of cGMP products to ViroMed which will extend the relationship to establish a JV company."