Overview

Founded in 1991, NaPro BioTherapeutics is focused on the development, production and licensing of complex natural-product pharmaceuticals as well as the development and licensing of novel genetic technologies for applications in agribiotechnology, pharmacogenomics, human therapeutics and diagnostics. One of the company’s major focuses has been the development of paclitaxel.

In 2000, the company licensed technology from the University of Delaware and Thomas Jefferson University to use proprietary molecules to precisely alter genes in humans, animals, plants and microbes. These custom oligonucleotides alter specific nucleotides in the sequence they pair with, allowing very targeted alterations.

The technology permits genes to be altered very precisely without introducing foreign DNA. It will be used in functional genomics, human therapy and diagnostics as well as plant genetics. The company plans to use the technology to develop SNP-specific cell lines and animal models that will aid in drug development, target validation, disease analysis and basic research.

Partners

Napro has partnerships with Abbott Laboratories, F.H. Faulding & Co. Ltd. and Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. in connection with paclitaxel. The company has a collaborative agreement with the University of Alabama at Birmingham for a broad technology relating to any receptor ligand peptide conjugated to any taxane, including paclitaxel.