Intract Pharma and N&S Pharmacy Investment announce partnership to develop orally-delivered GLP-1R agonist peptide therapeutic

Intract Pharma Limited, London, UK (“Intract”) and North & South Brother Pharmacy Investment Co., Ltd, Hong Kong SAR, China (“N&S Pharmacy Investment”) enter a partnership to develop orally-delivered GLP-1R agonist peptide to address treatment of metabolic diseases. N&S Pharmacy Investment will fund the feasibility studies and has an exclusive option to a global royalty-based license to the new formulation and Intract’s associated Intellectual Property. When the development of the new formulation hits a specific development milestone, a pharmaceutical partner of N&S Pharmacy Investment in China, HEC Group, Dongguan, China (“HEC”) will be involved in the pre-clinical and clinical studies of the asset in China.

Under this partnership, N&S Pharmacy Investment, Intract will use its proprietary Soteria® and Phloral® technologies in combination with the designated GLP-1R agonist peptide candidate. Intract will receive an upfront technology access fee and will lead the pre-clinical development sponsored by N&S Pharmacy Investment. Intract will be eligible to receive milestone and tiered royalty payments upon achievement of various clinical and commercial milestones. The product is set to enter preclinical testing in Q2 2020 with clinical development anticipated in 2021 following successful preclinical validation.

Bill Lindsay, Intract’s CEO said “Intract is delighted to be funded by N&S Pharmacy Investment for the development of an orally-delivery formulation of GLP-1R agonist. Through this partnership we believe that Intract’s technology will provide a means to create an extremely successful orally-delivered biotherapeutic”

“Short-term GLP-1R agonist peptides are potent glycemic regulation agents but the subcutaneous injection formulation can reduce the compliance of diabetic patients. We believe that the combination of Intract’s Soteria® and Phloral® technology platforms could protect the GLP-1R peptide from degradation in alimentary tract and guarantee the delivery of the peptide to the colon, as well as enhance the peptide uptake in colon tissue.” said an Executive Director of N&S Pharmacy Investment. “N&S Pharmacy Investment team is glad to collaborate with Intract to exploit an oral formulation of GLP-1R agonist peptide. In the later stage of development, we may partner with China’s most established pharmaceutical company, HEC Group, for pre-clinical and clinical development in China. N&S Pharmacy hopes the orally administered GLP-1R agonist peptide co-developed with Intract will bring diabetics a new GLP-1R agonist peptide product with a much more convenient administration route and better safety profile”