Insero gets more investment backing from XL TechGroup
XL TechGroup, a creator of drug discovery companies, says its joint venture GenXL LLC has entered into its second company development agreement.
XL TechGroup, a creator of drug discovery companies, says its joint venture GenXL LLC has entered into its second company development agreement.
GenXL has taken a 70% equity interest in Australian drug delivery company Insero Pty Ltd in exchange for an undisclosed capital commitment that will be used to fund pre-clinical development and milestone achievements. The remaining 30% share is owned by the core team of scientists that developed the technology.
Insero was founded in 2004 by Dr Stephen McMahon and Dr Anthony Rodgers, in Sydney, Australia, as a specialised pharmaceutical company working on developing implantable drug delivery systems, with an initial focus on hypertension.
High blood pressure, or hypertension, affects up to one-quarter of the adult population in most middle and high-income countries, and is the single leading cause of premature death worldwide. There is a range of drugs available to treat hypertension, and the leading three drugs - Amlodipine, a calcium channel blocker (Pfizer), and the angiotensin receptor blockers, Valsartan (Novartis) and Losartan (Merck) - accounted for over US$12 bn of sales in 2006 (Source: MedTrack) of a total global market projected to grow from US$36 bn in 2002 to US$50 bn by 2008 (Source: Datamonitor, 2003 Reuters Business Insight: Future of the Cardiovascular Market to 2008.).
However, a major problem with existing hypertension treatments is non-compliance - in essence patients failing to keep up with their medication programmes, resulting in treatment failure and disease progression. Non-compliance of 50% or greater is common.
There have been no major new developments in hypertension treatment in the past 10 years and, although a few new drugs are now at various stages of clinical development, none of them involve an implant. As a result, none of them provide a potential solution to the non-compliance associated with hypertension treatment programmes.
Insero is working with a US-based company on a feasibility study which is designed to evaluate its technology in conjunction with the US company's own FDA approved implant technology. These studies are expected to be completed within the first quarter of 2008 and, assuming they are positive, Insero expects to obtain a licensing agreement covering the novel implant technology in relation to specified compounds.