Arecor Therapeutics CEO discusses H1 highlights: GLP-1, AT278, and new partnerships
I mean the thing is, you know, across the board we remain confident in Arecor’s strategy and the opportunities, and we have a number of significant opportunities here for value creation. Hello you're watching Proactive. I'm joined by Arecor Therapeutics CEO Sarah Howell. Sarah, thanks for taking the time to speak with us today. You've announced your interim results. What are the key highlights? Yeah, I mean, I think across the board we've made great progress across the business. In terms of highlights, we've significantly advanced and expanded on diabetes and obesity proprietary pipeline there. I spoke to you last week there around the developments for AT278. So that's our ultra concentrated ultra rapid acting insulin where we've reported and phase I clinical data in type two diabetic patients with high BMI. So these were overweight and obese patients. And there we demonstrated superiority to the best insulins available to them today. So that gives us great confidence in that program moving forward.
And its ability to be a catalyst for the next generation of insulin pump delivery as well, where a concentrated, rapid acting insulin is absolutely needed. We've also made great progress in our collaboration with TRx Biosciences. So this is around an oral GLP-1. We've got good data and validation in that initial formulation development stage. So we can show that we can get that peptide into the delivery matrix. And we'll be looking forward to entering into PK studies in the first half of 2025. So that's great progress. There we've also established a partnership with Medtronic. So Medtronic are the largest insulin device company in the world today. And there we're developing, using our Arestat technology to develop a novel formulation of insulin that can be stable for implantable pump delivery, and that's for very vulnerable patient population. So we're very excited around that program. Then outside of the diabetes and obesity space, we've made, again, good progress across our partner programs. We have one products on the market via a partner, AT220. It's a biosimilar product, and they're continue to launch that globally.
And we're seeing an increasing revenue stream that's under license to Arecor, there’s a royalty revenue stream, to the business there. And we continue to enter into partnerships with major pharma and biotech companies there, where we can see that significant upside potential under our licensing model. I mean, importantly and it was post the period so in July, we closed a fundraise of £6.4 million. So that was net of expenses. And that included support from two international life science specialists, which again I think validates the promise that we have within our proprietary pipeline and the opportunity to create value there. And obviously, it gives us a solid financial platform to continue to invest for future growth.
Can you tell us a little bit more about how the GLP-1 collaboration is progressing. The field is clearly a major area of interest in life sciences at the moment. Yeah, obviously GLP-1s are a hot topic across the board there. So they're indicated therapeutic leave treatment for diabetes and obesity there in the seen impressive results there clearly in weight loss in the obesity category. So the majority of GLP-1s on the market today are injectables. There is one oral GLP-1 which is a product from Novo Nordisk called Rybelsus. And that's why we're working essentially we're taking the active ingredient there from Rybelsus, which is semaglutide, and looking in improving the oral delivery of that product because it does have challenges. It has very low bioavailability. So less than 1%. So that means you're losing 99% of the active ingredients along the way, which brings with its challenges around cost of goods, the ability to be able to supply, and also the dosing; the high doses that are needed, which can lead to side effects there.
And it's also required to be dosed on an empty stomach. So we'll be looking to circumvent that and dosing further down the GI tract there so that you can avoid that strict dosing criteria. And so we think there's room here. There's clearly room for an improved oral delivery of GLP-1. And it's a large market. So I mean the numbers are out there is predicted to reach $100 billion plus by 2030.
So certainly room for new entrants there. And you know this is a significant challenge. So the challenge here with oral delivery of peptides, generally GLP-1 is peptides has been that incompatibility of peptides in the fact that they they do you know, they get chewed up essentially down the GI tract and lose that bioavailability. So if we can improve bioavailability that would be a fantastic outcome.
And you know, for GLP-1 generally, but then more broadly as a platform form technology approach for us, where we can take more novel peptides and convert those to oral delivery. And a simple pill form is much easier from an adherence and compliance perspective. Clearly, for patients, rather than having to inject themselves daily. As mentioned, you spoke to us last week about the latest data for AT278, your novel insulin. You've said today that you're having positive discussions with potential partners about progressing a pump study for that product. What can you tell us there? Yeah.
So as you said, for AT278 we have now positive clinical data showing superiority in both type one diabetics and type two diabetics. So it shows regardless of your type of diabetes and also regardless of your BMI, that AT278 could be a superior treatment option to help control blood glucose, particularly around meal times, which it is really difficult to control times with it. We see real benefit here for use in insulin pump therapy.
So we know that people with diabetes do better on pumps. They have better timing range. So their blood glucose is kept in their target range and better outcomes. But despite this we see still see pretty low penetration of their use in the US where there's the highest use of insulin pumps. Still, only around 40% of people with type one diabetes will use an insulin pump, and less than 10% of people with type two diabetes. And so the challenge here is you're wearing these pumps day in, day out. And it's a very visible indicator that you have a chronic condition. And they're quite large. And the duration of their wear is quite short. So it's a real drive from the device. And the major device insulin pump manufacturers to move towards longer wear time. So currently the standard is three days to move to seven days plus, and also to make these insulin pumps much smaller.
But to do that you absolutely need a highly concentrated, very rapid acting insulin. And Arecor is the only company this managed to achieve this profile. We have to do something quite special here, and certainly the only company with any clinical data that demonstrates this is achievable. So there's a clear strategic fit between Arecor and a device company. And since we announced our AT278 data very recently, actually it was earlier this month at a major diabetes conference, those collaboration discussions, and we're talking about co-development discussions for our next planned insulin pump study, are moving at pace with those device companies.
Can you expand more on the collaboration with Medtronic and the importance of this to the business? Yes. So obviously, Medtronic is the largest insulin device company in the world. So, you know, we've been close to Medtronic for some time. And I think this really validates the relationship that we have them, and also the fact that we can combine our specific expertise and innovation, obviously, Medtronic, in terms of world leading pumps and insulin delivery devices and Arecor in developing best in class insulins here to develop better treatments for patients. This is an area where it's around implantable insulin pumps, these or implanted pumps, it's called intraperitoneal delivery. And it's for a particularly fragile patient population who are not responding well to traditional treatments and require much greater degree of control here.
So, you know, from that perspective, we're really pleased to be working with Medtronic on this. And the challenge here that we're looking to overcome is to be able to develop a very thermo stable – so body temperature, stable insulin that's also highly concentrated so that we can minimise the medical interventions and hospital interventions that are required for this patient population using the intraperitoneal delivery route. Currently and we believe that this is particularly challenging profile. And we believe this wouldn't be feasible without Arecor and the Arestat technology. And when you combine that with Medtronic state-of-the-art pumps, you know, there's a perfect collaboration there. And I should note, this is a fully funded, collaboration by Medtronic as well. Sarah, your partnerships and licensed programs are a key part Arecor business. So talk us through that strategy and why these are so important for Arecor. Yeah. So here, major global pharmaceutical and biotech companies come to Arecor to develop novel formulations of their proprietary products with enhanced properties.
So they're looking for, you know, enhanced improvements to their products that will bring benefits to patients that they're unable to achieve themselves. So we do this under a technology licensing model. It's revenue generating from day one. So partners pay for access to our technology and our expertise. But the real upside potential for the business then is through licensing there. So as I spoken about AT220 a product that's now on the market which validates the ability of the technology, but also the commercial value there that's generating a growing royalty stream for us all. So one of our other programs has been acquired from the partner company Inhibrx by Sanofi. So it's a product Inhibrx-101, originally, which is in the rare disease space. And there again, I think that validates the patient need for this product.
And under Sanofi, with their focus in rare diseases as well, that increases the probability of that coming to market. And that again incorporates the Arestat technology. And that's actually in a registration enabling clinical study that was initiated last year. So that's not a long way from market as well. And then we have this portfolio of technology partnerships with companies such as Eli Lilly, the largest pharma company in the world, Medtronic, that I've spoken about here. And they all have the potential then as they come to market under that license model, of course, to bring those improved products to patients, which is primary objective, but in doing so, returning value to our core and then moving forward, if we look at outlook, we would expect to enter into additional, both technology partnerships and licenses and through the remainder of 2024 and beyond.
Sara, can you talk us through your specialty pharmaceuticals business, Tetris Pharma? How are things progressing there? Yeah, so Tetris Pharma, we are really focused on our lead products Ogluo, which is a ready to use glucagon pen for the treatment of severe hypoglycemia. So this is dangerously low blood sugar. So it's an emergency situation for the individual and the glucagon administered by third party. So it's a bit like an EpiPen essentially for severe hypoglycemia there. So you know, in terms of the first half of the year and I spoke, we've spoken about this, the sales of Ogluo were tempered by stock. And so, you know, we have to temper demand there to ensure we had the stock to be able to service that demand, especially if it's an emergency use treatment there.
But post the fundraise in July that's enabled us to increase our stock provisions there. And we're really targeting and doubling down on two key markets being the UK and Germany. The UK has a market value for ready to use Glucagon of around 18 million; in Germany of about 9.5 million there. So there's significant market sizes for glucagon. And we feel with its profile is a real opportunity for us to grow market share in those territories. Now, we announced this morning, and it is very recent here, that there is a packaging issue related with Ogle. So this has nothing to do with the integrity of the pen itself. It's around the final foil seal that goes around that product. We expect that to be short term in nature and have some impact, but we expect that to be minimised in terms of being able to resupply that stock in country. And obviously we'll keep the markets updated as that progresses. But as I said, we expect that to be short term in nature. So, you know, across the year we'd expect year-on-year growth to continue of Ogluo. And then with our targeted marketing and awareness campaigns to see that continued acceleration of growth through 2025.
Sarah, in closing, anything else you'd like to mention? I mean, I think, you know, across the board we remain confident in Arecor’s strategy and the opportunities, and we have a number of significant opportunities here for value creation. And, you know, I look forward to coming back and talking to you again as we have new developments and that we can speak about. I look forward so that as well. Sarah, thank you very much for taking the time today. Thank you. Sarah Howell, the CEO of Arecor Therapeutics..
