Ipsen enters into partnership agreement with Inspiration Biopharmaceuticals

Jan 21 2010

“We are very pleased to partner with Ipsen, which has clearly demonstrated a thorough understanding of the hemophilia market and has helped create a strong, far-reaching partnership structure with Inspiration.”

Ipsen (Paris:IPN) and Inspiration Biopharmaceuticals, Inc. (Inspiration) today announced that they have entered into a partnership to create a world leading hemophilia franchise. The partnership is designed to leverage combined expertise and resources to advance a broad portfolio of recombinant proteins, which address all major hemophilia disorders in a unique way by focusing on two significant unmet needs: wider access to treatment with coagulation factors and treatment for inhibitor complications. The two lead product candidates are scheduled to begin Phase III clinical testing in 2010 including Ipsen’s recombinant porcine factor VIII, OBI-1 (for the treatment of patients with acquired hemophilia and hemophilia A who have developed an inhibitory immune reaction to human forms of factor VIII), and Inspiration’s recombinant factor IX product, IB1001 (for the acute and preventative treatment of bleeding in patients with hemophilia B). Combined with Inspiration’s novel proprietary technology and an early-stage pipeline of additional hemophilia factors, this broad and unique portfolio would provide greater access to care and fulfill unmet needs for patients suffering from bleeding disorders.

Under the terms of the agreement, Ipsen will exclusively sub-license OBI-1 to Inspiration in exchange for $50 million in convertible notes and a 27.5% royalty on future OBI-1 sales. Inspiration will also enter a separate agreement with Ipsen for supply of the OBI-1 product.

Ipsen will provide up to $259 million of funding to Inspiration. The proceeds will be used for the development and commercialization of its hemophilia pipeline, including OBI-1.

Assuming all milestones payments are made, and the notes are converted into Inspiration equity, Ipsen would hold approximately 47% of Inspiration’s equity on a fully diluted basis.

Upon certain triggering events, Ipsen would also have the ability to acquire full control of Inspiration. The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2010.

“We are very pleased to partner with Ipsen, which has clearly demonstrated a thorough understanding of the hemophilia market and has helped create a strong, far-reaching partnership structure with Inspiration.” said John Taylor, Co-Founder and Chairman of Inspiration. “Inspiration’s goal is to bring a better quality of life to patients suffering from hemophilia and we believe Ipsen is the right partner to help make that happen. OBI-1 makes sense to us as a strategic fit in our portfolio of products. Not only does it add a valuable late-stage product to our pipeline, but it will benefit from our existing development infrastructure and future specialty sales force. With the addition of OBI-1, we will be a worldwide leader in hemophilia providing a broad range of treatment options for individuals suffering from bleeding disorders.”

Jean-Luc Bélingard, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Ipsen, said, “Inspiration has both a strong development experience and a broad pipeline that will provide the opportunity for new growth on our way to building a new, multi-product global franchise for Ipsen in hematology. We are impressed by the track record of Inspiration’s management team in this field. We are confident that the structure we have designed will continue to foster the exceptional environment that has made Inspiration successful until a time when the company has OBI-1 and IB1001 commercialized, and would synergistically benefit from Ipsen’s specialist care global footprint.” Jean-Luc Bélingard added, “Subject to the products in development being approved by the relevant regulatory authorities and upon successful commercialization, we believe Inspiration’s portfolio, including OBI-1, could exceed sales of $1 billion in the next 10 years. After entering the US market last year, we remain committed to growing Ipsen’s specialist disease areas on a global basis. This new partnership reflects Ipsen’s long-term strategy to build a successful global specialty care franchise that will benefit both patients, doctors and shareholders”.

“We are committed to do everything that we can to ensure that patients suffering from hemophilia have more choices and greater access to therapies that also provide a better quality-of-life, and we are very excited that two companies, Ipsen and Inspiration that share this value are going to be working together to make this vision a reality", stated Mark Skinner, President, World Federation of Hemophilia. "We are looking forward to the potential introduction of Inspiration's products as they will address the two greatest unmet medical needs of the community, access to treatment and improving the lives of people with hemophilia and inhibitor complications”.

Claude Négrier, Head of the Hematology Department at Edouard Herriot University Hospital in Lyon, France said: "Providing wider access to treatment with coagulation factors, and improving treatment for inhibitor complication are two significant unmet needs for the hemophilia community. The combination of OBI-1 (the recombinant factor VIII with low cross-reactivity based on porcine amino acid sequence), IB1001 (recombinant factor IX under clinical trial) and recombinant factors VIIa and VIII developed by Inspiration create a portfolio of therapies which address these needs, and represent a significant addition to the treatment armamentarium available to Hemophilia Treatment Centers worldwide. I am pleased to see these two teams joining forces to improve hemophilia care”