In July 1987, Otisville BioPharm, Inc. in Otisville, New York, and Fluoromed Pharmaceutical, Inc. in San Diego, California entered into an agreement to collaborate on the further development of perfluorochemical (PFC)-based products for medical applications. At that time, Otisville BioPharm was funding development of new fluorinated surfactants to be used in producing stable PFC emulsions. Fluoromed Pharmaceutical had developed and was engaged in clinical testing of a product utilizing a specific PFC, perfluorooctyl bromide (perflubron). In August 1988, following a year of collaborative work, Otisville BioPharm acquired a minority interest in Fluoromed Pharmaceutical.
In February 1989, Fluoromed Pharmaceutical was merged into Otisville BioPharm and the name Alliance Pharmaceutical Corp. was adopted for our merged company. Our efforts are now focused primarily on enhancing PFC technology and the further development of PFC-based products to be used as oxygen carriers, contrast agents, and drug delivery vehicles.
Alliance's corporate headquarters and main research and development facilities are located in San Diego, and until recently we maintained an additional facility in Otisville. The Otisville Complex has a history that encompasses almost 100 years of service in medicine as enduring as the fieldstone that wraps the buildings themselves.
In 1906, Dr. William Hallock Park founded what became known as the Antitoxin Laboratory of the New York City Department of Health. A laboratory/farm complex was constructed on a 175-acre site in Otisville, located approximately 65 miles northwest of Manhattan in the foothills of the Catskill Mountains.
The original mission of the Laboratory was to manufacture diphtheria and tetanus antitoxins from horse sera. These sera served as therapeutic inocula against the epidemics that followed the great immigration to the United States at the turn of the century. Succeeding years brought development of new healthcare products and methods, some of which remain standards in medicine today. In the late 1930s, Dr. Jules Freund developed his famous Freund's Adjuvant, which is still the standard matrix used by researchers to produce an immunological response. In the 1960s Drs. Harvey Fishman and Morris Schaeffer developed the immunofluorescent technique for the diagnosis of rabies. In 1976, Dr. Carlton Gadjusek received the Nobel Prize for Medicine for work he did with slow viral diseases using animal models developed and maintained at the Complex.
The Otisville Complex was used for some of Alliance's research and manufacturing activities for more than 10 years. In June 2001 it was sold to Breonics, Inc., a pharmaceutical research and development company. Breonics is headed by a former employee of Alliance, and we are pleased that the facility will continue to be used for medical research by individuals who respect its history.
Today, all of Alliance's activities are directed in California. Our corporate headquarters, laboratories, and commercial-scale manufacturing facility for Imavist are located in San Diego. We hope to continue the inspiring tradition of medical achievements started by our scientific forebears.