March 13, 2015
By Alex Keown, BioSpace.com Breaking News Staff
Ipsen SA has gone on a hiring spree in the U.S. in order to carve out a greater market share in the United States against rival anti-wrinkle drugmaker Allergan Inc. , the maker of Botox.
Ipsen, a $4 billion biopharmaceutical company, is adding to its U.S. sales force to promote two new medicines, Dysport, a Botox rival that will have additional medical use, and Somatuline, a drug used to treat tumors of the gastrointestinal tract and pancreas, Bloomberg News reported. Ipsen has brought on 100 people to build up an oncology business based in Cambridge, Mass. The company expects to spend about $42 million to promote Somatuline in a market worth hundreds of millions, Chief Executive Officer Marc de Garidel said in a news report.
Somatuline is currently used to treat a hormone disorder known as acromegaly that causes the pituitary gland to generate too much growth hormone, leading to an increase in bone size. The disorder primarily impacts middle-aged adults. In December the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Somatuline’s use for the treatment of adult patients with unresectable, advanced or metastatic gastroenteropancreatic neuroendocrine tumors (GEP-NETs). Clinical trials showed that Somatuline reduced the risk of disease progression or death by 53 percent.
There are an estimated 112,000 individuals currently living with neuroendocrine tumors in the U.S., and the prevalence of this type of cancer has risen over the past 30 years. Garidel told Bloomberg he expects Somatuline’s sales to rapidly increase in the second half of this year and generate about $515 million in sales by 2018.
Dysport is an injection used to temporarily treat frown lines on the face. Ipsen is looking at additional uses for the drug to treat upper-limb spasticity in adults. Garidel said he’s expecting sales of the drug to reach about $318 million.
“By the end of 2015 we will have a good assessment of the future trajectory of the company for the next five years,” de Garidel told Bloomberg.
Ipsen SA saw a 4 percent increase in revenues in 2014 over 2013. When announcing the company’s yearend results, Garidel said the year was marked with good milestones, including U.S. approval of Somatuline for GEP-NETs and the filing of Dysport for use in adult upper limb spasticity.
Garidel said he expects this next year to be a strong one for the company, even taking into consideration the millions the company will spend to promote Somatuline.
Ipsen is also looking to take tasquinimod, its investigative oral treatment for solid tumors associated with prostate cancer, into Phase III clinical trials later this year as well.
Ipsen is looking to boost revenue in North America, a market that only provided about 6 percent to the company’s bottom line last year. It will open its Cambridge site next month. The research center will be led by Leslie Sloan, a former Pfizer Inc. and Eli Lilly and Company executive. Also, Cynthia Schwalm, a former general manager of Amgen ’s oncology business, has been tapped to lead Ipsen’s commercial operations in North America, according to Bloomberg.
BioSpace Temperature Poll
Vertex Pharmaceuticals made news last week when it terminated leases on three properties in Cambridge, Mass, that freed up 313,000 square feet of space in the Genetown area. The company has spent a significant part of 2014 consolidating its operations on the South Boston waterfront, leasing 291,000 square feet of office space at West Kendall Street in Cambridge’s Kendall Square. So we wanted to ask the BioSpace community: Is Boston going to be getting more biotech leases anytime soon, or fewer tenants?
