PHARMACY MARKET
Business Wire | September 28, 2023
Cytel Inc., provider of quantitative insights and health data analytics to leaders in the life sciences, has acquired the Berlin-based company co.faktor GmbH with its dedicated healthcare consultancy services co.value® (market access), co.medical® (medical communications), and co.patient® (patient relations) concentrations. As a result, Cytel’s services for biopharma commercialization will gain new and complementary specialist consultancy capabilities and localized expertise for successful market access in Germany, a first wave launch country. The acquisition marks another milestone in Cytel’s strategic growth in Europe, and follows the recent acquisition of stève consultants, specialists in market access, real-world evidence (RWE), and health economics and outcomes research (HEOR) in France. Cytel now boasts a 200-person-strong access consultancy team, making it one of the only providers that offers the full fleet of advisory services, from clinical trial and real-world data and evidence analytics to global market access and local in-country Health Technology Assessment (HTA) support.
Cytel is now primed to provide global drug sponsors and their affiliate teams with advanced analytical support across the lifecycle through commercialization. Achieving favorable market access in today’s global healthcare industry is challenging and requires deep knowledge of EU national regulations. Cytel has long excelled at using proven quantitative techniques to help pharmaceutical manufacturers successfully enter new markets. To continue supporting global and local clients on their road to commercial success, Cytel has invested heavily in specialized, national capabilities in key launch markets with the recent acquisitions of stève consultants in June 2023 and SDS Life Sciences in 2022. Cytel’s most recent acquisition of the co.faktor businesses continues this investment, augmenting and extending localized regulatory support through product launch and commercialization.
“The co.faktor team is recognized as a highly specialized biopharma services provider, with a broad spectrum of services including HTA, pricing, medical communication, patient relations, and strategic consultancy in Germany. It’s no surprise they’ve shaped the field there,” said Radek Wasiak, General Manager, Real-World & Advanced Analytics at Cytel. “We look forward to welcoming them to Cytel, where they will now be supported by the full depth and breadth of our unparalleled biometrics, RWE, HEOR, and market access advisory talent.”
“Cytel and co.faktor have clear synergies, particularly when it comes to Cytel’s data know-how and co.faktor’s understanding of Germany’s uniquely complex market access and HTA requirements,” said Dr. Marc Esser, CEO, co.faktor. “By combining our deep expertise in the German HTA process with Cytel’s unique capabilities, we will be able to help our clients survive the upcoming European Health Technology Assessment (EU-HTA), a key challenge for all stakeholders in the European pharma market.”
About Cytel
Cytel is the largest provider of statistical software and advanced analytics for clinical trial design and execution. For over thirty-five years, Cytel’s scientific rigor and operational excellence have enabled biotech and pharmaceutical companies to navigate uncertainty, prove value and make confident, evidence-based decisions. Its experts deliver industry-leading software, data-driven analytics, real-world evidence, and strategic consulting. Headquartered in Waltham, Massachusetts, Cytel has more than 1,900 resources across North America, Europe, and Asia.
About co.faktor
For more than ten years, Berlin-based co.faktor GmbH has been providing specialized consulting services with its dedicated healthcare consultancy services co.value® (market access), co.medical® (medical communications), and co.patient® (patient relations) concentrations. By synergistically combining the expertise in these areas, co.faktor offers efficient launch support with consistent messaging to all relevant stakeholders.
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PHARMACY MARKET
PR Newswire | October 12, 2023
Indivior PLC a leading addiction treatment company, announced that it has gained exclusive global rights to develop, manufacture, and commercialize Alar Pharmaceuticals Inc.'s ("Alar") portfolio of long-acting injectable formulations that release a prodrug1 of buprenorphine at varying durations, including its lead long-acting injectable ("LAI") candidate, ALA-1000.
ALA-1000 is a sustained-release LAI prodrug of buprenorphine. With dosage intervals of potentially up to four times per year, ALA-1000 could address unmet opioid use disorder ("OUD") patient needs with a longer duration of treatment, which could provide an option for patients seeking a less frequent maintenance therapy regimen, for patients living in remote areas without easy access to care, and for high-risk patients, such as those transitioning from the Justice system.
Under the agreement with Alar, Indivior will pay $10 million to secure exclusive global rights to develop, manufacture and commercialize ALA-1000 and Alar's future buprenorphine-based LAI product candidates. The $10 million payment is in addition to an initial $5 million option payment made by Indivior to Alar in Q1. Alar is entitled to potential milestone payments if various developmental, regulatory, and commercial goals are achieved.
"Alar provides Indivior with a unique opportunity to further address unmet patient needs in the treatment of OUD with potentially the first three-month buprenorphine LAI," said Christian Heidbreder, Chief Scientific Officer. "By providing a therapeutic option for patients who might benefit from less frequent dosing, ALA-1000 has the potential to broaden the spectrum of care for OUD treatment as well as enhance the addressable patient population."
ALA-1000 is an investigational drug and is positioned to be the first three-month buprenorphine administered subcutaneously entering the clinical stage. Results from a single-ascending dose ("SAD") study, announced by Alar in January 2022, demonstrated the safety, tolerability and sustained release profile of ALA-1000 over 12 weeks in patients with OUD2. Alar has been granted composition of matter and formulation patents for ALA-1000 covering sustained-release buprenorphine formulations with expiry in 2037 and 2039.
Based in Taichung, Taiwan, Alar is a drug development company which focuses on developing long-acting drug products for central nervous system ("CNS") disorders and chronic diseases, utilizing its proprietary depot technology. Compared with other long-acting subcutaneous injection technologies, its proprietary platform has been associated with distinctive characteristics such as low viscosity solution, small injection volume and sustained drug release profile.
The transaction is not expected to have a material impact on the Group's FY 2023 adjusted results.
About Indivior
Indivior is a global pharmaceutical company working to help change patients' lives by developing medicines to treat addiction and serious mental illnesses. Our vision is that all patients around the world will have access to evidence-based treatment for the chronic conditions and co-occurring disorders of substance use disorder (SUD). Indivior is dedicated to transforming SUD from a global human crisis to a recognized and treated chronic disease. Building on its global portfolio of OUD treatments, Indivior has a pipeline of product candidates designed to both expand on its heritage in this category and potentially address other chronic conditions and co-occurring disorders of SUD, including alcohol use disorder and cannabis use disorder. Headquartered in the United States in Richmond, VA, Indivior employs more than 1,000 individuals globally and its portfolio of products is available in 39 countries worldwide.
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PHARMA TECH
Business Wire | October 05, 2023
OM1, a leading real-world data, AI, and technology company with a focus on chronic diseases, announced the launch of two new clinical datasets, Chronic Rhinosinusitis (CRS) and Asthma. Both datasets are derived from longitudinal follow-up of patients seen by specialists and focus on patient characteristics, symptoms, treatments, clinical outcomes and healthcare resource utilization. Rapidly growing, the CRS and Asthma datasets each follow approximately 500,000 patients in the U.S.
The research-grade, real-world data available in the OM1 Respiratory & ENT Network is built with an exclusive partnership between OM1 and the American Academy of Otolaryngology and Head and Neck Surgery Foundation (AAO-HNSF). With access to thousands of clinicians and more than 25 million patient visits across all 50 states, the data is rich with the most representative network available, including patient reported outcomes, social determinants of health, and patient subtypes and classification data.
Millions of Americans are impacted by respiratory diseases, and the number continues to rise as respiratory illnesses become more common and air quality declines. Taking a deeper look, it’s estimated that 25 million people in the United States are diagnosed with asthma and 5-12% of the global population is affected by CRS. Not only do the numbers continue to rise, it’s common for patients with respiratory diseases to have multiple illnesses. Studies show that up to 67% of people with CRS with nasal polyps, small noncancerous growths that increase the severity of the disease, also have asthma.
"Having access to deep clinical information on clinical presentation, treatments, and outcomes opens a world of incredible opportunity to improve care at both the population and individual patient level,” said Dr. Richard Gliklich, CEO, OM1.
Alongside AAO, OM1 and Dr. Gliklich will be participating and presenting at the AAO-HNSF Annual Meeting and OTO Experience in Nashville, October 1-4.
About OM1
With specialization in chronic conditions, OM1 is re-imagining real-world evidence and insights by developing large electronically connected networks of clinicians and health data in dermatology, rheumatology, gastroenterology, cardiology, metabolism, respiratory, mental health, neurology and other specialty areas. Leveraging its data automation platform, OM1 Aspen, extensive clinical networks and artificial intelligence (AI) platform, PhenOM™, OM1 offers industry-leading enriched healthcare datasets, retrospective and prospective studies, advanced analytics, and AI-driven guidelines adherence and decision-support around diagnosis, risk management, and treatment. With a focus on high-quality data and clinical outcomes, the offerings are used for accelerating research, demonstrating treatment effectiveness, supporting regulatory submissions, monitoring safety, and informing commercialization.
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