Flamel secures production contract for GSK heart failure drug
pharmafile | October 25, 2011 | News story | Manufacturing and Production | Coreg CR, Flamel, GSK, manufacturing
France’s Flamel Technologies has won a long-term contract from GlaxoSmithKline focusing on the production of the drugmaker’s Coreg CR heart failure treatment.
Coreg CR (carvedilol) is an extended release beta blocker sold by GSK as a treatment for chronic heart failure and pulled in sales of £76 million ($120m) in the first six months of 2011, down around 7% year-on-year.
The product was developed using Flamel’s proprietary Micropump microparticle technology, and it remains one of Flamel’s biggest revenue-generators, bringing in around a third of Flame’s $37 million annual revenues last year.
Whilst its importance to the French company is starting to recede as Coreg CR itself matures in the marketplace, the extension of the manufacturing contract – which expired at the end of 2010 – has been a focal point for Flamel investors in recent months.
Under the revised agreement, Flamel will receive guaranteed minimum payments to supply Coreg CR microparticles over a period of several years. The company has already received a payment of €1.3 million and anticipates a second €1.3 million payment to be paid in the next ten days.
The revised contract also means that Flamel will receive a higher margin on all product manufactured since the start of the year, said the company in a statement. Flamel manufactures the microparticles at its 30,000 sq. m. facility in Pessac, which it acquired in 1996 from SmithKline Beecham.
GSK first started working with Flamel on a Micropump formulation of Coreg in 2003. The technology takes the form of microparticles coated in a polymer that controls the diffusion of active drug out of a central reservoir. It is designed to retain small molecule drugs for longer in the small intestine, and is particularly suitable for delivery compounds with a narrow window of absorption.
Beyond Micropump, Flamel also has a delivery technology for injectable drugs called Medusa, and has collaborations in place for improved formulations of interferon beta-1a (with Merck Serono) for multiple sclerosis and basal insulin (with Baxter) for diabetes, as well as an early-stage collaboration with Pfizer.
Phil Taylor
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