Lexaria Updates Fast-Moving GLP-1 'Arm's Race' Developments
DehydraTECH™ for GLP-1 being optimized for global pharmaceutical use
KELOWNA, BC / ACCESSWIRE / November 7, 2024 / Lexaria Bioscience Corp. (NASDAQ:LEXX)(NASDAQ:LEXXW) (the "Company" or "Lexaria"), a global innovator in drug delivery platforms provides the following glucagon-like peptide-1 ("GLP-1") industry update.
It is no surprise that Novo Nordisk's ("Novo") blockbuster drug, semaglutide, which is sold under the brand names Ozempic®, Wegovy®, and Rybelsus®, is the bestselling diabetes and weight loss drug in the world today. Novo has, for one hundred years, been the world's leading diabetes drug and research company, after receiving the extraction and purification techniques from the Canadian doctor who discovered insulin in 1921. They owned six of the world's top-15 bestselling diabetes drugs, for combined sales in 2022 of US$16.87 billion for diabetes applications alone, and in just the first half of 2024 generated $8.3 billion from sales of the blockbuster drug, Ozempic®.
Lexaria's strategy is to continue developing and optimizing our wholly-owned DehydraTECH™ drug delivery platform for application in the GLP-1 space, positioning it as a "must-have" technology for larger companies seeking to develop, defend or increase their cash flows from existing drugs as well as to be utilized in early stages of drug development for next-gen GLP-1 drugs due to hit the market in 2026, 2027, and beyond.
An 'arm's race' of sorts has begun amongst the world's pharmaceutical companies once it became apparent that the GLP-1 drugs responsible for life-changing outcomes in diabetes management were also responsible for impressive weight-loss benefits. Close behind Novo is Eli Lilly with its own drug, tirzepatide, which is branded as both Mounjaro® and Zepbound®. Because of its dual action properties, working on both GLP-1 receptors and also glucose-dependant insulinotropic polypeptide pathways ("GIP"), tirzepatide is even more effective at weight loss and is expected by some analysts to reach $50 billion in global total annual revenue.
Global pharmaceutical companies are competing against each other in the GLP-1 space utilizing three main strategies:
Developing or acquiring their own new GLP-1 and related molecules under traditional drug development techniques;
Developing or acquiring technologies and intellectual property ("IP") that improves the delivery pharmacokinetics of GLP-1 in attempts to increase drug absorption and decrease drug side effects; and,
Developing or acquiring related technologies and IP that can act as platforms for improved drug performance and patient outcomes.
On November 4, 2024, Ascendis Pharma announced it had granted an exclusive worldwide license to its technology platform to Novo for Novo products in metabolic disease - obesity and type 2 diabetes. In return, Ascendis will be eligible to receive total payments of US$285 million from Novo for this initial program, as well as payments up to an additional $77.5 million for each additional disease product candidate.
On September 18, 2024, it was reported that Novo was agreeing to pay NanoVation Therapeutics up to $600 million, plus research funding in addition to tiered royalties to collaborate on up to seven programs for technology utilizing NanoVation's lipid nanoparticle technology.
On September 16, 2024, Korro Bio announced a collaboration wherein it could receive up to $530 million in aggregate payments from Novo to apply Korro's patented platform to develop RNA editing product candidates focused initially on cardiometabolic diseases.
In September 2024, Eli Lilly began working with Haya Therapeutics by way of up to a $1 billion investment, to use a proprietary RNA-guided genome platform to target obesity and other metabolic conditions.
In August, 2024, Canadian-based Inversago Pharma announced its pending acquisition by Novo for up to $1.08 billion if certain milestones are achieved. Inversago has its own weight loss drug, INV-202, that showed weight loss of 3.3% in a small human study of 37 people.
In February, 2024 Viking Therapeutics announced positive Phase II weight-loss results from its GLP-1/GIP drug and watched its company valuation sore from less than $2 billion to more than $8 billion as a result. Viking is considered by some to be a leading takeover candidate for more-established pharmaceutical companies looking to stake their ground in the GLP-1 sector.
In February, Novo paid $16.5 billion to acquire its contract manufacturer Catalent, and their three manufacturing plants working diligently to churn out Ozempic® and Wegovy®, vertically integrating the semaglutide franchise.
In December, 2023, Eli Lilly agreed to pay up to $494 million to Fauna Partnership, to utilize its artificial intelligence platform to search for new molecules focused on weight loss.
The GLP-1 and related drug sector has generated tens of billions of dollars in corporate M&A and licensing activity even as it is on its way to becoming one of the largest drug sectors in history with estimates widely ranging from $100 billion per year to as much as $471 billion per year in revenue.
About Lexaria Bioscience Corp. & DehydraTECH
DehydraTECH™ is Lexaria's patented drug delivery formulation and processing platform technology which improves the way active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) enter the bloodstream through oral delivery. Since 2016, Lexaria has developed and investigated DehydraTECH with a variety of beneficial molecules in oral and topical formats. DehydraTECH has repeatedly demonstrated the ability to increase bio-absorption and has also evidenced an ability to deliver some drugs more effectively across the blood brain barrier, which Lexaria believes to be of particular importance for centrally active compounds. Lexaria operates a licensed in-house research laboratory and holds a robust intellectual property portfolio with 46 patents granted and many patents pending worldwide. For more information, please visit www.lexariabioscience.com.
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SOURCE: Lexaria Bioscience Corp.
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