Pro-Pharmaceuticals partners with Chinese firm

Pro-Pharmaceuticals Inc. of Newton said today it is collaborating with a Chinese company to scale up production of its lead drug candidate, a potential cancer treatment called Davanat.

Pro-Pharmaceuticals collaborator is Chemwerth Inc., part of Chemwerth Technology Co. Ltd. of China.

"The ability to scale up manufacturing of Davanat is an important step in the process to commercialize Davanat," Pro-Pharmaceuticals executive vice president Eliezer Zomer said in a statement. "Chemwerth has been supplying the pharmaceutical industry with quality generic drugs for more than 20 years. To gain marketing approval for our lead compound Davanat would be a major milestone in the development of our technology."

Pro-Pharmaceuticals recently requested a meeting with the Food and Drug Administration to discuss a new application of Davanat.
(By Chris Reidy, Globe staff)