H. Paul Dorman, Chairman and CEO of DFB Pharmaceuticals Inc., has announced that DFB has acquired Phyton Inc., a privately held specialized pharmaceutical company and a leader in the use of proprietary plant cell fermentation technology to produce high value medicines without the need for plant harvesting, elaborate chemical synthesis, or utilization of mammalian, yeast, or microbial organisms. Phyton currently generates revenue by efficiently producing a commercial source of the taxane paclitaxel, the active ingredient in one of the leading drugs for ovarian and breast cancer.

Phyton has research and development headquarters in Ithaca, New York, and operates a large plant cell fermentation manufacturing facility in Ahrensburg, Germany.

“The acquisition of this technology allows DFB and its affiliates to meet increasing worldwide demand for unique, effective treatments for patients,” said Mr. Dorman. “Phyton will operate as a DFB subsidiary, expanding our manufacturing service offerings, broadening our drug development capability, and bolstering our market strength.”

“There are multiple advantages to producing pharmaceuticals via plant cell fermentation,” said Magnus Precht, who has joined Phyton as General Manager. “Phyton’s plant cell fermentation technology enables the production of known and novel plant-derived complex small molecules as well as biopharmaceuticals from transgenic plant cells. The plant cell fermentation approach is environmentally beneficial, secure, rapidly scalable, and cost effective.”DFB foresees growing Phyton into a fully-integrated biotechnology concern that will continue to develop and sell proprietary development services as well as manufacturing services to pharmaceutical companies worldwide, in addition to being an internal source for new drug technology for DFB affiliate HEALTHPOINT Ltd., according to Mr. Dorman.