Artes Medical Establishes Worldwide Manufacturing Of ArteFill In San Diego

Artes Medical Inc., a privately held specialty pharmaceutical and medical device company, today announced its new commercial cGMP manufacturing facility in San Diego. Artes Medical will use this facility to centralize worldwide manufacturing of ArteFill, the first permanent injectable wrinkle filler to successfully complete U.S. FDA clinical trials. Complete manufacturing as well as the company's corporate headquarters will be moved to this San Diego location.

ArteFill is a revolutionary, pharmaceutical-grade bovine collagen and synthetic microsphere-based injectable skin filler designed to allow Plastic Surgeons and Dermatologists to better serve the rapidly growing personal aesthetics market. Artes Medical received an approvable letter from the FDA for ArteFill on January 16, 2004. The company expects to begin marketing ArteFill in the U.S. and internationally early next year. Artefill's predecessor product has been marketed outside of the U.S. under the name Artecoll(R).

Artes Medical's new 35,000 sq. ft. manufacturing facility, formerly operated by both DURA Pharmaceuticals and ELAN Pharmaceuticals, is located at 5870 Pacific Center Boulevard in San Diego, Calif. The facility has 14,000 sq. ft. of FDA compliant, cGMP cleanroom manufacturing suites, 15,000 sq. ft. of manufacturing support laboratories and 6,000 sq. ft. of office space. Artes Medical will begin operations at this new location in August 2004. The company anticipates adding approximately 55 jobs to the San Diego market before ArteFill's launch in 2005.

"The company's new manufacturing facility provides us with a first class operation and world-scale production capacity. Our products will be marketed in the United States and internationally early next year, and we must prepare ourselves to meet domestic and international market demands for ArteFill," commented Dr. Stefan M. Lemperle, M.D., co-founder and CEO of Artes Medical. "The facility's location in San Diego puts our central operations in close proximity to large cosmetic surgery markets and will allow us to hire highly qualified people who are familiar with medical devices. It also allows Artes Medical to expand ongoing collaborations with prestigious local research centers such as the University of California, San Diego," he continued.