Costs offset revs at Furiex, but Eshelman upbeat about prospects
The compound partnering firm posted an operating loss of $8.1m for the three months ended June 30, its second quarter as an independent company after splitting from PPD earlier this year.
Furiex attributed the loss to $13.4m in costs related to the initiation of proof-of-concept studies for two candidates, MuDelta and Fluoroquinolone (JNJ-Q2), it in-licensed from Janssen-Cilag in November 2009.
These costs, plus selling and administration expenses post-launch, offset the $7.5m milestone payment Furiex received as a result of Takeda’s launch of the diabetes treatment Nesina in Japan.
Despite the loss chairman Fred Eshelman, former PPD CEO, was upbeat, claiming Furiex’ “novel drug development model…will feed pharma and biotech pipelines, get products to market faster and lower R&D costs.”
And, while the future success or otherwise of Furiex’ approach remains to be seen, the model has been launched at a time when drug firms keen to refill dwindling pipelines are asking more of development partners.
The prospect of sharing risk by partnering with Furiex, as opposed to simply being a contract developers’ customer, may also prove attractive to drug firms under pressure ensure maximum chance of return on early-stage investment.
US dapoxetine patent
In related news, Furiex reported last month that it had been granted the US patent for an “as-needed” formulation of the premature ejaculation treatment dapoxetine.
The drug, which was developed in collaboration with Alza, is sold by Janssen-Cilag as Priligy and contributed around $500,000 to Furiex’ second-quarter royalty revenue.
Speaking at the time Furiex CMO June Almenoff said: "The method claims of this patent are valuable because, unlike other selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, dapoxetine's effects on premature ejaculation are evident with one dose, allowing dapoxetine to be dosed on an 'as needed' basis.”
Almenoff added that: “Issuance of the patent extends patent protection for the treatment of premature ejaculation using dapoxetine for 12 years."
