Friulchem S.p.A., a Vivaro, Italy-based contract development, and manufacturing organization for innovator and generic pharmaceutical products for human and veterinary use, reports on a natural conjugated estrogen project.

Friulchem S.p.A. has begun collaboration with the Swiss HES-SO Valais-Wallis Center, a university of applied sciences in Sion, Switzerland, to finalize the development of a process for the production of natural estrogens, which is being used to develop a generic product of Pfizer’s Premarin (conjugated estrogens) and its related products. The HES-SO Valais-Wallis has approximately 2,300 students and is made up of four schools.

Equilin is present in the mixture of estrogens isolated from horse urine and marketed as Premarin, which became the most commonly used form of estrogen for hormone replacement therapy and which is used to treat symptoms associated with menopause, according to information from Friulchem.  Estrone is the major estrogen in Premarin (about 50%), and equilin is present as about 25% of the total. Estrone is an estrogen that is generally found in women.

The estrogens in Premarin are present mainly as “conjugates,” i.e., coupled to another chemical group such as sulfate, according to the company.

Source: Friulchem