Intec Pharma Gets New CEO, Plans 'Accordion Pill' Program By Rachelle H.B. Fishman

BioWorld International Correspondent ZICHRON YAAKOV, Israel - The "accordion pill," the first product from Intec Pharma, is pushing open the narrow absorption window. Intec, of Jerusalem, has an oral capsule packed with a proprietary bioengineered expandable matrix, designed to be infused with a drug of interest. Once in the stomach, the matrix unfolds like an accordion to about 4x2 centimeters, making it too large to pass through the sphincter separating the stomach from the small intestine.
Since the accordion matrix biodegrades at a predetermined rate as long as 24 hours, it releases pharmaceuticals that are slowly passed through with other stomach contents, moving over the initial 10 cm of the gastrointestinal tract at which most drug absorption occurs.
Speaking to BioWorld International, Intec's new CEO, Efi Cohen-Arazi, said, "For decades, drugmakers have been unable to meet chronic medication needs. Patients have had to repeatedly take large doses throughout the day
to attain therapeutic levels - not only inconvenient but producing unwanted side effects."
Cohen-Arazi said, "I was convinced that Intec has a breakthrough solution for this huge unmet need. I see the company becoming a leading player in the controlled-release field, and we are using our industry experience to
match this technology with some large biopharmas who are watching the clock count down on their patent-protected drugs."
Cohen-Arazi formerly was a vice president at Amgen Inc., of Thousand Oaks, Calif. He said that three big pharmas have already shown interest in the technology. Intec is encouraging them to take a new look at drugs that
cost them hundreds of millions of dollars in development but were discarded in late clinical trials because of dosing and side effects.
"Cohen-Arazi has the skills to take our start-up internationally," said Hebrew University of Jerusalem professor Michael Friedman, co-inventor of the accordion pill. Prior to Amgen, he was a key production executive at
Immunex Corp., of Seattle, and now part of Amgen, and Geneva-based Serono SA.
The company has raised $3.5 million in three years in private money, and is looking at a major fu nding thrust in the next several months.

BioWorld International May 18, 2005