"It's a shame about the time with Teva," says Andromeda Biotech Ltd. CEO Shlomo Dagan, following the acquisition of the company by Hyperion Therapeutics Inc. (Nasdaq: HPTX). "I cannot say if Teva's conduct was nice or not, but they delayed us for a long time."
On the other hand, it is possible that without the strong support from Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (NYSE: TEVA; TASE: TEVA), Clal Biotechnology Industries Ltd. (TASE: CBI) would never have bought Diapep277 for the treatment of type 1 diabetes, and would not now be benefiting from the new commercialization agreement.
More than 20 years have passed since the Weizmann Institute of Science first commercialized Diapep277 to a company that was supposed to bring it to market. "It was first commercialized to a foreign company, which failed because it tried to manage development in Israel from abroad. The product then went to an Israeli company, Peptor, but it had another product, and they were less interested in our product. Peptor was sold to Germany's DeveloGen, which also wasn’t interested in the product," says Prof. Yaron Cohen, who invented the molecule.
"Clal Biotech, in coordination with Teva, saved the product and built Andromeda around it. It was a special purpose company."
Clal Biotech and Teva acquired Diapep277 from DeveloGen in 2007. Teva owned 14% of the rights. The plan was for Clal Biotech to assume part of the financing and development risks, after which Teva would take over the responsibility and rights to develop the product in exchange for future royalties. That happened in 2009, and Teva pursued Diapep277's development, until former Teva CEO Jeremy Levin terminated the project as part of his new strategic plan for the company.
Teva made no progress on Diapep277, in contrast to other products, nor did the company release it. Ultimately, Clal Biotech bought back the rights to the drug, in order to commercialize it with another company - Hyperion.
Dagan is pleased by the Hyperion deal, but is wary given his experience in the industry. "I don’t count my chickens before they're hatched. You can never know where a partnership is headed. We have very good chemistry with Hyperion, and they are hungry for more products to market, but integration is always a challenge. I hope that the differences in outlook, which always exist, will not frustrate our progress, but prod it."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on April 24, 2014
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