CSL

CSL continues to invest in the development of protein-based medicines to treat serious human illnesses. Today, most of our licensed medicines are purified from human plasma or made from traditional sources, like influenza vaccines. In addition, CSL is building the capabilities required to develop future products using recombinant DNA technology.

Global research and development activities support CSL’s core licensed product businesses and three other areas of new product development:

• Replacement therapies that enhance our plasma products portfolio;
• Therapeutic proteins based on recombinant proteins and antibodies; and
• Vaccines that use our proprietary ISCOMATRIX® adjuvant and/or our influenza vaccine capabilities.

Our replacement therapies focus has been on supporting the launch of Privigen® in Europe, completing the clinical development of our 20% subcutaneous immunoglobulin product, progressing the recombinant coagulation projects in preclinical development, and expanding the geographical registrations and medical indications for existing plasma products.

The advent of the H1N1 pandemic influenza threat required an immediate response from CSL scientists to develop a vaccine for Australia and other markets including the US. A candidate vaccine is undergoing clinical testing in Australia and the US (see feature on page 16).

An adjuvant enhances the immune response when formulated with a vaccine antigen. We continue to make good progress with our ISCOMATRIX® adjuvant and have several commercial partners with vaccine candidates at various stages of clinical development. The management focus for this developing technology has moved to our King of Prussia office in the US to ensure close coordination with regulatory agencies and partners. To facilitate the supply of ISCOMATRIX® for clinical trials, commercial scale production is now being carried out at our Kankakee site in the US.

We have continued to strengthen our capabilities in later stage clinical and commercial development of biopharmaceutical products. This has been achieved through hiring world class scientific and medical leaders for key projects, ensuring access to R&D manufacturing capacity through relationships with contract manufacturers, and judicious investment in our own facilities.

R&D investment remains an important avenue to future growth for CSL. We continue to search globally for high quality new product opportunities that match our technical skills in protein-based medicines, as well as our development and commercial capabilities.