Category Archives: Bolus Insulin

Beta Bionics Raises $50M, but No Lilly Investment

Beta Bionics announced it has secured $50M thus far in a Series B round. Interestingly, the press release states Novo has participated in the Series B, but there was no mention of Lilly. Recall, Both Novo and Lilly previously invested $5M each in the Series A financing. Zealand also committed $5M to the Series B fresh off its $205M cash injection from the sale of Soliqua/Lyxumia royalties. Below, FENIX provides thoughts on the Beta Bionics financing including Lilly’s apparent decision to refrain from further investment.

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New Lilly Academic Collaboration to Help Compete with Novo/Oxford

Lilly and the Indiana Bioscience Research Institute (in collaboration with Indiana University School of Medicine) have partnered to create the “Lilly Diabetes Center of Excellence” (LDCE). According to the press release, the LDCE will support “cutting-edge research in diabetes, diabetic complications, and related metabolic disorders.” Lilly’s decision to create the LDCE appears to be (at least in part) driven by a need to keep up with Novo’s collaboration with The University of Oxford. Below, FENIX provides thoughts on the LDCE including a comparison with a similar program between Novo and University of Oxford.

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Sanofi Restructures GBUs; Stefan Oelrich Moves to Bayer

Less than 3 years after reorganizing the company into 5 Global Business Units (GBUs), Sanofi is once again restructuring the organization. Now, Sanofi is creating Primary Care and China & Emerging Markets GBUs, which will replace the Diabetes and Cardiovascular (DCV) and General Medicines & Emerging Markets (GEM) GBUs. As part of the transition, Stefan Oelrich, head of the DCV business, is leaving Sanofi to join Bayer’s Board of Management and lead its Pharmaceuticals Division. The transition is set to take effect by the beginning of 2019. Below, FENIX provides thoughts Sanofi’s reorganization with insight on the potential impact on its diabetes business.

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Livongo-Abbott Integration with Libre Pro

Livongo announced a partnership with Abbott to integrate the FreeStyle Libre Pro into the Livongo for Diabetes program. The integration with a professional (retrospective) CGM makes sense given Livongo’s focus on patient education and behavior-based treatment. Below, FENIX provides a unique perspective that the Abbott partnership could signal a limitation in Livongo’s diabetes solution.

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MannKind Partners for Pulmonary Hypertension; $MNKD up ~100%

Yesterday, MannKind announced a partnership with United Therapeutics for dry powder delivery of treprostinil (pulmonary hypertension) and another non-disclosed R&D project. MannKind will receive $45M in an upfront payment and is eligible for up to $50M in additional milestones as well as “low double-digit” royalties” for the tresprostinil development and commercialization. Since the partnership announcement, $MNKD is up ~100% (+89% on Sept 4 and an additional +10% in Sept 5 pre-market trading shown below). Interestingly, the news came 21 years after treprostinil first became available through the MiniMed 407c, a pump created in part by Al Mann.

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Sanofi DCV CMO Leaves

Riccardo Perfetti (pictured below), Sanofi’s VP Medical Affairs and Head of the DCV Global Medical Team, has reportedly left Sanofi to serve as the CMO of Applied Therapeutics. Perfetti had been with Sanofi since October 2007.

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Novo Q2 ’18 London Earnings Event

Novo Nordisk hosted its post-Q2 ’18 earnings event in London. The format of the event was different than in past quarters. This event started with a short presentation by Novo’s CEO and was followed by a “Meet the Management” session that was not available through webcast. Below are highlights from the available presentation.

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Novo Q2 ’18 Earnings Update

Novo Nordisk hosted its Q2 ’18 earnings call and provided updates to its diabetes and obesity portfolio. Of note, Novo disclosed it will be launching Ozempic in Europe with 3 pens (0.25mg for titration as well as 0.5 and 1.0mg for treatment) as compared to 2 pens in the US. Below, FENIX provides highlights and key insights form the call.

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MannKind Q2 ’18 Earnings Update

Yesterday, MannKind hosted its Q2 ’18 earnings call and provided updates on its clinical and commercial activities. Of note, MannKind recently hired a new Chief Marketing Officer, Garrett Ingram, who formerly held positions as SVP Managed Markets at Dexcom, VP Market Access at Sanofi, and VP Market Access Strategy at BMS. Additionally, MannKind discussed BlueHale, its connected care attachment for the Dreamboat device, which measures successful dose administration via a pressure gauge. Below are highlights from the call.

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