Auspep aiming to ride the big waves

Australian peptide maker Auspep is looking for funds to finance its growth on the back of a market that is jagging upward.

"Our exports have grown by double in the last 18 months," says Auspep managing director Chris Chandler.

The company has seen sales climb 20 to 30 per cent in the Australian market for custom peptides, where it claims to be a leader in the supply of product to the pure research community.

"Two years ago, the market for peptides had flattened out," says Chandler. "What has happened since then is that the publication of the human genome has generated more interest in the cellular level where the peptides are the action molecules."

Research labs and biotech companies who isolate small amounts of peptides of interest rely on Auspep for the supply of larger quantities.

The privately-owned company is profitable and has increased staff to 20 from 13 in little more than six months. Chandler expects to recruit another five in the next year.

Its major markets are in the US, Europe and Japan and "in a lot of ways, Auspep is the right company on the wrong continent," he says.

It has a US office in Kentucky but Chandler does not intend to shift the centre of gravity of the 15-year-old company out of Australia.

For pharmas and biotechs who outsource their peptide manufacturing, Auspep's allure is the expertise and customer service it supplies along with its product, he says.

Pharmas in the US who have a working relationship with Auspep include Pharmacia and GlaxoSmithKline, Chandler says.

State Development Fund Ltd, a pooled development fund (PDF), invested recently in Auspep but the company is looking for further funds to establish a Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) lab to fill what it sees as a gap in the current market.

"There is a big void in Australia at the moment in labs that can produce peptides for clinical trials," says Chandler. "No domestic company is specifically manufacturing peptide for that market and a lot of dollars are going offshore to the US.

"We see a real opportunity in this area and are looking for money to have a lab up and running by the start of 2003."