Viropro Inc. - a company that serves as a bridge between therapeutic proteins and developing countries - signed its first major deal, with the Tunisia-based pharmaceutical firm BioChallenge.

The alliance, or memorandum of understanding, means Viropro could earn $27.5 million in U.S. revenues over a 10-year period in which BioChallenge markets erythropoietin, interferon beta and growth factors such as G-CSF to Indonesia, Pakistan and countries in Africa, the Middle East and in Europe. The first proteins should reach those markets in 2009 to treat diseases such as cancer and multiple sclerosis.

For privately held BioChallenge, the deal means Tunisia will be home to the first manufacturing facility for therapeutic proteins in that part of the world.

Since 1982 when the first recombinant pharmaceutical product was approved by the FDA, the field has become very large, but the therapies have not been accessed easily - let alone affordable - for developing and third-world countries. Montreal-based Viropro has acquired intellectual property that enables it to transfer the technology of bio-generic products to regions that at one time only could access the drugs through foreign-owned pharmaceutical companies.

"You might say it's a new company devoted to the transfer of technology of therapeutic proteins that are out of patent," said Jean-Marie Dupuy, Viropro's president and CEO.

Several bio-recombinant products already are in the public domain or will become public by 2007. The top 10 recombinant products that will be public next year had recent annual worldwide sales of $15 billion. In the coming years, those types of products are expected to represent the majority of those registered with the FDA.

Large pharmaceutical firms often are interested only in transferring their technology to major markets, forcing emerging markets to buy the drugs at high prices. For countries in South America and Africa, "not to have access to this kind of technology in the coming years will be sort of difficult," Dupuy told BioWorld Today.

He called the agreement with BioChallenge "the first of its kind" for the company, which is working toward similar deals in other markets.

"We are presently talking to several companies in South America and in the Middle East, and in India, as well," he said.

The $27.5 million in revenues would come to Viropro in the form of fixed licensing fees, development milestones, technology-transfer payments and royalties that vary from 5 percent to 10 percent of net sales, depending on the volume. The money disclosed involves conservative market penetration of three therapeutic proteins - $10.5 million in the first four years, and about $17 million in the term's remaining six-year period.

Potentially generating more revenue, Viropro also will deliver technology for a fourth protein selected by BioChallenge.

Viropro is developing its products "almost at cost," Dupuy said. "Our benefit is mostly coming afterward through royalties, and that will add up, because each year there will be new products coming out of patents."

The company's research and development procedures are the result of alliances with Immuno Japan Institute, the Biotechnology Research Institute of the National Research Council Canada in Montreal, and Alimentary and Veterinary Biotechnology Institute of the University of Montreal.

Formed in November 2004 through a public shell, Viropro gained a new management team six months ago and currently has about 10 employees. It is in the process of raising money through a private placement.

The company's stock (OTC BB:VPRO) dropped 5 cents on Thursday, to close at $1.30.