Flamel Sells French Manufacturing Facility To Recipharm
By Cyndi Root
Flamel Technologies has agreed to sell its manufacturing facility in France to Recipharm, a contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO). The companies announced the sale in a press release, stating the deal relieves Flamel from the duties of running a manufacturing facility. The Pessac facility currently produces products with Flamel's Medusa technology, a hydrogel depot formulation. Flamel has arranged on-demand access to the facility and other Recipharm facilities for manufacturing in a five-year service contract.
Michael S. Anderson, CEO of Flamel, said, "This sale allows us to continue to call on the Pessac facility for technical aspects of development of our proprietary products using our current drug delivery technologies and the option to utilize Recipharm's commercial manufacturing capabilities elsewhere.”
Flamel and Recipharm Agreement
Under the agreement between Flamel and Recipharm, Recipharm will make an upfront payment of EUR 10.6 million ($13 million) to Flamel and invest another EUR 10.5 million in Flamel stock. The companies expect to close the deal in 2014 and agree upon the purchase price of the stock. Flamel states that selling the facility allows it to focus on its Medusa technologies.
The companies have also agreed that Recipharm will include the technologies in Recipharm’s contract development business. Recipharm has secured the right to negotiate with Flamel on European rights to Flamel products. Included in the facility sale agreement is the royalty contract for Coreg CR with GlaxoSmithKline. The Pessac facility in Bordeaux, France is an FDA approved facility engaged in developing and manufacturing pharmaceuticals using Flamel's Medusa platform.
Medusa Platform
Medusa is a drug delivery system that is well suited for subcutaneous administration of small molecule drugs. Flamel states that the approach may be suitable for biological drugs as well. The proprietary system is drug carrier polymer that forms a hydrogel depot after injection without altering the drug substance. This allows the timed release of the agent up to a week. The polymers are constructed with glutamic acid and alpha tocopherol (Vitamin E). The drug is loaded in the polymers via non-covalent, hydrophobic, and electrostatic bonds. Flamel states that key attributes of the platform include: no burst effect, lower initial Cmax and uniform plasma concentration, and non-denaturing drug loading.