N.Z. drug earner

Press, 2 October 1979, Page 6

N.Z. drug earner

PA Auckland An anti-cancer drug, mAmsa, developed by Auckland scientists could bring New Zealand up to $lO million a year in export royalties.

The international drug company. Warner Lambert, has obtained the world rights to market m-Arnsa. It has also contracted rights to related anti-cancer agents developed in the Auckland division of the Cancer Soci-

ety’s laboratory under Dr[ Bruce Cain. Although m-Amsa has not been through final clinical tests it has excited the medical world by its promising performance so far and has put Dr Cain’s experimental chemotherapy unit under a

spotlight. The Auckland division of the Cancer Society will receive half of the royalties from m-Amsa. The Development Finance Corporation, which negotiated the con-

i tract, will get the rest. Both will put the money back into further research. Complete details of the contract are not known. However, a “front fee” of $250,000 has been paid. Of this $200,000 is to fund expanded activities in Dr

Cain’s laboratories and $50,000 is a contractural fee paid to the Development Finance Corporation. Dr Cain has been appointed an honorary professor at Auckland Universitv.