Memorandum
Arecor, a peptide and protein biotechnology company based in the UK, just announced that it has entered a funding partnership with the JDRF to advance preclinical development of its ultra-concentrated insulin. The JDRF will provide up to $900,000 in funding over 12 months to advance its stable, rapid-acting U1000 (1000 units/ml) concentrated insulin through preclinical PK/PD modeling. Arecor hopes to position the ultra-concentrated insulin both as an option for patients with high insulin requirements (>200 units/day) and for use in miniaturized next-generation artificial pancreas systems. The candidate will harness Arecor’s proprietary Arestat platform technology to improve its stability and onset of action. While the candidate is clearly very, very early stage, we applaud the company’s forward-looking strategy of developing for “next-generation” closed loop when the very first closed loop has yet to arrive on the market. Thermalin is also developing a U1000 insulin for miniaturized artificial pancreas systems. Arecor has several other preclinical candidates related to diabetes in its pipeline, including a stable glucagon analog for hypoglycemia and for use in bi-hormonal artificial pancreas systems that has been in preclinical development since at least 2012. Other preclinical candidates in its pipeline include an ultra-rapid-acting prandial insulin, a formulation insulin glargine (Sanofi’s Lantus) with improved thermostability, a separate ultra-long-acting insulin glargine formulation, and a formulation of liraglutide (Novo Nordisk’s GLP-1 agonist Victoza) with improved thermostability.
-- by Shivani Chandrashekran, Helen Gao, and Kelly Close