Category Archives: Other

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 Partners for Cross BBB Drug Delivery

Novo Nordisk has entered into an R&D collaboration with Ossianix, a Philadelphia-based R&D company. Ossianix utilizes its single domain VNAR antibody to increase drug absorption across the blood brain barrier (BBB). According to the press release, Ossianix will deliver a predefined number of therapeutic agents to Novo for the treatment of diabetes and other metabolic diseases. Below, FENIX provides context of the R&D agreement as well as thoughts on potential targets that Novo is pursuing.

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Thoughts on Merck’s Digital Diabetes App

Merck and its partner Healthy Interactions launched a newly updated unbranded digital diabetes app called Map4health. Previously, the app was available with fewer features under the name “Conversation Map.” Interestingly, the platform can be used by both patients and HCPs; however, Merck and Healthy Interactions are primarily marketing the platform to HCPs with the intent to drive patient uptake through HCP recommendations. Below, FENIX provides an overview of the app features as well as thoughts on the program.

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Novo Partners for Early Stage Small Molecule Development

Novo Nordisk has formed a strategic alliance with Evotec for the discovery and development of novel small molecule compounds for the treatment of diabetes, obesity, NASH, CVD, and diabetic kidney disease. The partnership with Evotec is Novo’s 5th external R&D collaboration since the start of 2018. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed. Below, FENIX provides insight into Novo’s ongoing efforts to build up its early stage pipeline in adjacent therapy areas to diabetes via external partnerships.

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Zealand Q2 ’18 earnings summary

Zealand hosted its Q2 ’18 earnings call (press release) and provided updates on its diabetes portfolio including dasiglucagon, which is being studied for three distinct indications (hypoglycemia rescue, use in a dual-hormone pump, and congenital hyperinsulinism).

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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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