Biotech company Pharming Group NV (Pharming) announced that it has entered into an agreement with MegaPharm Ltd. (MegaPharm), a privately owned Israeli pharmaceutical company, for the commercialization of Ruconest (recombinant human C1 inhibitor) in Israel for the treatment of acute angioedema attacks in patients with Hereditary Angioedema (HAE).

Under the agreement, MegaPharm will pay Pharming for completion of certain commercial, regulatory and clinical milestones. MegaPharm will purchase its commercial supply of Ruconest from Pharming at a supply price, based on a percentage of net sales of Ruconest. The number of HAE patients in Israel is estimated at approximately 250. MegaPharm anticipate to launch Ruconest in 2012.

Sijmen de Vries, CEO of Pharming, commented: "We are pleased to have taken a another step towards making Ruconest, an innovative, highly effective and safe replacement therapy, available to HAE patients globally. In MegaPharm we have a strong commercialization partner with a proven track record in this region and strong presence in the immunology therapeutic area.”

Miron Drucker, CEO of MegaPharm, said: “We are delighted to have concluded an agreement with Pharming to market Ruconest in Israel. We have been active in the Allergy and Immunology fields for many years and this is an important step in the company’s strategy to strengthen our presence and expand our portfolio in this therapeutic area.”

Ruconest is a human protein developed through Pharming’s proprietary technology where the human protein is expressed in milk of transgenic rabbits. Pharming is developing Rhucin/Ruconest for treatment of patients with acute attacks of Hereditary Angioedema. HAE is a human genetic disorder in which the patient is deficient in or lacks a functional plasma protein C1-inhibitor, resulting in an overreaction of the immune system. The disease is characterized by unpredictable and debilitating episodes of intense swelling of the extremities, face, trunk, genitals, abdomen and upper airway, which may last up to five days when untreated. In addition to the life-threatening nature of the disease in case of laryngeal attacks, quality of life for individuals with the disease may be seriously impaired. Approximately one in 30,000 individuals (1:10,000 – 1:50,000) suffers from HAE with an average of approximately eight acute attacks per year.

Pharming Group NV is developing innovative products for the treatment of unmet medical needs. Ruconest (Rhucin in non-European territories) is a recombinant human C1 inhibitor approved for the treatment of angioedema attacks in patients with HAE in all 27 EU countries plus Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein, and is distributed in the EU by Swedish Orphan Biovitrum (STO: SOBI).

MegaPharm Ltd. is one of the leading private biotech, pharmaceutical and medical nutrition marketing companies in Israel with a strong biotech orientation, exclusively representing a number of major American and European pharmaceutical companies.