News | Current News       Back to News

Pfizer Acquires VC-Backed BioRexis Pharmaceuticals

Dow Jones & Company
February 02, 2007

Venture investors are benefiting from Pfizer Inc.'s new push to acquire more products from smaller drug developers after the demise of its key cholesterol drug torcetrapib.
Yesterday, Pfizer said it would pay an undisclosed amount to acquire BioRexis Pharmaceutical Corp., a company that applied its technology for making long-acting protein therapies to develop a clinical-stage diabetes product and a pipeline of preclinical drug candidates. The merger is expected to close in the first or second quarter.

BioRexis, King of Prussia, Pa., could help strengthen Pfizer's metabolic-disease franchise, which includes the inhalable insulin Exubera and the glucose-lowering sulfonylurea, Glucotrol XL. Last year's failure of torcetrapib prompted the company last month to announce plans to accelerate its licensing and business-development efforts.

BioRexis had raised $38 million through two rounds from Anthem Capital, ProQuest Investments, Quaker BioVentures, Tullis-Dickerson & Co., Prism Venture Partners, and Johnson & Johnson Development Corp. Its lead product is in clinical trials for Type II diabetes, but its exact stage of development is undisclosed.

BioRexis uses its technology to fuse therapeutic proteins to a molecule, transferrin, that boosts the drug's half-life. This enables the drug to remain active longer so that it can be administered less frequently. BioRexis's lead drug candidate, injected once weekly, activates the GLP-1 receptor to stimulate insulin production in response to food.

The product also may play a role in helping to preserve insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas, according to Chief Executive David R. King. The drug would be in the same class as Byetta, a GLP-1 receptor-targeted therapy sold by Amylin Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Eli Lilly & Co.

Lyle H. Hohnke, a general partner of Tullis-Dickerson and a member of the BioRexis board, said he was pleased with the acquisition but declined to comment further because the deal hasn't closed.

More information on both companies and the transferrin technology can be found at www.pfizer.com and www.biorexis.com.

Back to News