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The Accordion
Pill technology will enable Intec to be a conduit for major slow
release drugs that can be administered once daily cutting out the
need for someone to take as many as five pills a
day.
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Most
people have heard of and been amazed by Given Imaging's
camera-in-a-capsule - the groundbreaking Israeli technology that has
redefined gastrointestinal diagnosis and benefited tens of thousands
of patients worldwide.
Well, it must be an Israeli thing,
because now Jerusalem-based startup Intec Pharma has come up with
its own equally innovative 'in-the-capsule' technology which could
likely create the next big splash in the Pharma industry - the
Accordion Pill.
An oral drug delivery system, the Accordion
Pill may look like an ordinary-sized capsule, but once inside the
stomach it unfolds like an accordion and positions itself as a
controlled-release platform. This unique technology will enable
Intec to be a conduit for major slow release drugs that can be
administered once daily cutting out the need for someone to take as
many as five pills a day.
Our bodies naturally have a hard
time absorbing certain medication into the bloodstream. In some
instances a drug dosing may be too sudden - and too much active
ingredient enters the narrow absorption window; in other cases, an
insufficient amount of drug is absorbed and the active ingredients
get quickly flushed outside the body.
The Accordion Pill
ultimately solves this problem by retaining the pharmaceutical
ingredients in the stomach for as long as 24 hours, compared to a
maximum stomach residency of three hours in a regular formulation.
It can also be designed to release the ingredients at desired
intervals according to a drug developer?s demands. Within a day the
small accordion structure biodegrades and passes through the
system.
The Accordion Pill targets drugs that need to be
absorbed by the bloodstream in a limited area of the upper small
intestine known as the 'narrow absorption window', a physical area
of the lower stomach and the upper part of the small intestine.
Drugs that could benefit from Intec's technology are used for
treating a wide variety of conditions such as Parkinson's,
Alzheimer's, hypertension, AIDS, obesity and for pain
relief.
The potential market for the Accordion Pill is so
large that Intec succeeded in wooing Efi Cohen-Arazi - the CEO of
Amgen, the largest biotech company in the world - to its small
offices in the hills of Jerusalem.
After just a few months
on board, he was able to be part of Intec's latest milestone - last
month's successful completion of Phase I clinical trials for a drug
platform. The Accordion Pill will pass through further clinical
trials depending on what company co-develops active compounds with
them.
The study, conducted at the Sheba Medical Center in
Ramat Gan, demonstrated that the Accordion Pill could double the
amount of Riboflavin retained in the body.
The study was
based on cross-over data from thirteen healthy volunteers who
received alternate 75 mg. doses of Accordion Pill Riboflavin and
regular immediate release Riboflavin following a low calorie meal
(280 calories).
The study results showed that the Riboflavin
Accordion Pill was retained in the stomach and continued to release
Riboflavin to its absorption sites for significantly longer periods
of time than regular Riboflavin. The stomach retention time for
Accordion Pill Riboflavin was more than 6 hours compared to less
than 2 hours with regular Riboflavin; the absorption time for
Accordion Pill Riboflavin was 8 hours compared to 3 hours for
regular Riboflavin. As a result, the total amount of Riboflavin
absorbed by the body was 100 percent greater when the Accordion Pill
was used than when it was not.
The study results were
presented last month by Prof. Amnon Hoffman of the Hebrew University
at the 32nd annual meeting of the Controlled Release Society in
Miami, Florida. Hoffman together with Prof. Michael Friedman is
co-developer of the Accordion Pill and a member of the Intec Pharma
Scientific Advisory Board.
Besides working with drug
developers on making new drugs more potent, or effective, Intec
hopes to enter into what is known as the super-generic drug market.
The goal here is to give one generic drug manufacturer a strong
competitive edge over all others by substantially improving the
drug's absorption capability.
Intec is currently negotiating
with several large US pharmaceutical companies and plans to soon
begin working on several compounds.
No doubt having a former
Amgen VP at the company's helm will certainly help Intec company
commercialize its technology as Cohen-Arazi is well-versed in
international pharmaceutical culture and is already on a first name
basis with heads from companies like Pfizer and Johnson &
Johnson.
Over the last ten years, Cohen-Arazi made a meteoric
rise in the drug industry. He started out working with InterPharm in
Israel where he played a key role in developing beta-interferon
(today the main drug used for the treatment of Multiple Sclerosis)
from where he advanced to an executive position at the headquarters
of Interpharm's owner, Switzerland's Serono.
He then obtained
a leading position at Immunex and when the company merged with
Amgen, he found himself as a VP at the world's largest biotech
company. There, he managed a $400 million budget and helped
orchestrate a company of 15 000 employees.
One of
Cohen-Arazi's most fulfilling achievements at Amgen was developing
what he calls the miracle drug, Enbrel, which gives a new lease on
life to rheumatoid arthritis sufferers.
"I managed Enbrel's
development for the last five years and was enriched and rewarded by
patients and families who told us on how drugs like Enbrel changed
their lives," Cohen-Arazi told ISRAEL21c. "I am always thrilled that
I can do something good for humanity and get paid for it at the same
time."
Over the last three years, Cohen-Arazi has been
following the fruits of Israeli biotech investments made in the late
nineties. By last year already he was eager to help jumpstart a
biotech company back in Israel.
"The year 2004 marked a
completely new trajectory for Israel's biopharma industry," says
Cohen-Arazi, "I was looking for opportunities in Israel because I
wanted the challenge to learn and grow with a company from
scratch."
Although it is may be easier to grow in a big
company like Amgen that has experts on hand in every field,
Cohen-Arazi was looking for a new kind of challenge - one where his
efforts wouldn't feel diluted. Cohen-Arazi wanted the feeling of
creating something completely unique, and Israel is where he knew he
could do that.
Today Intec predicts its business will develop
in two ways. First, the company will sign licensing agreements with
large pharmaceutical companies and accept upfront payments as well
as royalties from co-developments. Second, the company has
identified and is developing certain target molecules which will be
commercialized through a strategic partner.
Cohen-Arazi is
downright excited to see what the future will bring at his new
position at Intec. During those moments when he gets feedback from
drug developers and potential investors from Israel and the US, he
begins to understand that the Accordion Pill may be the biggest
development he's ever been involved in. |
