French Drug Firm Bets on Tiny Diabetes Device
Servier Backs Implantable Pump Developed by Boston-Based Intarcia Therapeutics
Servier has agreed to pay Intarcia Therapeutics Inc. $171 million up front, with potential additional payments that could increase the total to more than $1 billion, for rights to co-develop the device for most markets outside the U.S., the companies said. Closely held Intarcia retains full rights to the treatment for the U.S. and Japan.
The agreement amounts to a significant validation of the potential for the experimental pump, a matchstick-sized device that delivers a continuous dose of the drug exenatide to patients for up to a year. The pump is intended to address a major issue in treatment of Type 2 diabetes: the failure of most patients to stay on pills or take injections required to control their blood sugar.
The pump hasn’t yet been approved for sale; the companies plan to submit it to regulators in the first half of 2016.
“When we talk to patients with Type 2 diabetes, there is a huge burden of the treatment for them on their daily lives,” said Pascal Touchon, Servier’s vice president, scientific cooperation and business development. The company’s investment reflects its belief “about how important the innovation will be for patients and how large the potential might be if the innovation reaches patients,” he said.
World-wide, some 382 million people are currently living with diabetes, according to the International Diabetes Federation, more than 90% of them outside the U.S. The vast majority have the Type 2 form of the disease, which is often associated with being overweight or obese.
Intarcia said recently that in two late-stage studies involving a total of 520 patients, the device—when used with standard oral medicines—significantly lowered blood sugar as measured by a marker called hemoglobin A1c, when compared in most cases with standard oral medication alone. The company hasn’t yet published the data in peer-reviewed medical journals. Two other late-phase studies are under way.
Kurt Graves, chairman, president and CEO of Intarcia, said the deal with Servier was the result of a six-month process that involved discussions with 11 major drug companies. He declined to name other contenders.
In addition to the upfront payment, the achievement of regulatory milestones within the first two years will trigger payment of another $230 million. The remaining $650 million is tied to commercialization and sales targets.
Servier was a good fit, in part, because “they’re the one party that was happy to leave us in full control of the U.S. market,” Mr. Graves said, one of the company’s chief goals in finding a global marketing partner.
Servier, a closely held 60-year-old company controlled by a foundation, doesn’t have any U.S.-based operations. Servier had annual sales last year of €4.2 billion ($5.2 billion), Mr. Touchon said. It markets the diabetes drug Diamicron, which he said is the top global seller outside the U.S. among a class of drugs called sulphonylureas.
Intarcia’s pump, called the ITCA 650, is based on technology that enables medicine to remain stable at body temperature. It can be implanted in abdominal tissue in a five-minute procedure by doctors, physician assistants or nurses, Mr. Graves said. It releases exenatide continuously in micro quantities to allow stable control of blood sugar.
Exenatide is marketed in other forms by AstraZeneva PLC as Byetta and Bydureon for patients with Type 2 diabetes.