Glide Pharma, the specialty pharmaceutical company developing products based on its innovative needle-free Glide SDI drug delivery system, has raised £2.3 million. The round involved existing shareholders, such as Oxford Technology 4 VCT, as well as new investors including Oxford Capital Partners.
Under a separate agreement, Glide Pharma has also entered into an exclusive licence and distribution deal with Paladin Labs Inc, a leading Canadian specialty pharmaceutical company, for Glide Pharma products in Canada.
Glide Pharma has developed the Glide SDI, an easy to use drug delivery system that injects drugs in solid dosage form into the skin without the need for a needle. The company recently won the Best Business Award at the prestigious Medical Futures Innovation Awards 2007 for the Glide SDI, which GPs and patients have praised as a device that is ideal for self-administration of drugs at home and particularly suitable for needle phobics - during trials, patients overwhelmingly preferred an injection with the Glide SDI to an injection by needle and syringe.
Glide Pharma is developing its own range of Glide-branded drug products and part of the funding will be used to take the Company's first new drug product, GP02, into clinical trials in autumn 2007. GP02 is a needle-free version of immediate release octreotide acetate, one of Novartis' top ten selling drugs with almost a billion dollar market that is now 'off patent'.
Octreotide is used to treat neuroendocrine tumours and acromegaly, a chronic condition caused by abnormally high amounts of growth hormone that causes enlargement of body tissues, including the bones of the face, hands, feet, and skull, and can result in serious disease and lead to premature death.
Dr Charles Potter, founder and CEO of Glide Pharma, said, "We are delighted to have secured the funding we need to take our first Glide Pharma drug product through clinical trials. We are also excited to be partnering with Paladin, a dynamic and creative company with a track record of successfully launching innovative pharmaceutical products in Canada. The Glide SDI is ideally suited to the delivery of many drugs not only because of the simplicity of the device but also because of the enhanced stability and potential for controlled release of the drug when injected in a solid dosage form."
Paladin Labs will assume responsibility for local clinical trials, sales and distribution of at least three of Glide Pharma's pipeline products, which, as well as GP02 octreotide, currently include needle-free versions of sumatriptan, a leading migraine drug, and fentanyl, a widely-used pain medication for breakthrough pain.
Jonathan Ross Goodman, president and CEO of Paladin Labs, said, "The Glide SDI provides tangible, important benefits to Canadian patients currently requiring daily injections. The ability to have needle-free versions of these gold standard treatments for migraine, acromegaly, and breakthrough pain will allow for better compliance and disease control. In addition, the Glide SDI mitigates needle-related complications such as needle stick injuries and risk of cross contamination. Glide Pharma's current pipeline of products nicely complements our existing pain and endocrinology portfolios."
Glide Pharma will also use the new funding to initiate its own internal development programme with a biologic product and to continue development of its commercial manufacturing process.
Dr Potter commented, "We are in discussions with additional major pharmaceutical partners to co-develop the Glide SDI with their proprietary drugs and vaccines. There is strong interest in new delivery systems for both vaccines and biologics that are self-injected at home, such as insulin."
The funding round represents a hat trick for Glide Pharma as this is the third time that the company has completed an over-subscribed funding round in a matter of weeks.
Lucius Cary, founder and managing director of Oxford Technology Management Ltd, the Investment Manager to the Oxford Technology VCTs, said, "We are delighted that Glide Pharma is making such good progress. The fact that the founder investors are continuing to invest, as well the company's ability to attract new investors, is a testament to the quality of its technology and the significant progress made in bringing it to market."
David Mott, Investment Director of Oxford Capital Partners, said, "The Oxford life science cluster has an exceptional heritage in needle-free drug delivery and Glide Pharma has already captured the attention of the big pharma companies. As a specialist investor in the medical technologies sector, we are pleased to add Glide Pharma to our portfolio."