Isotechnika Pharma Inc IPHAF

Alberta mag

[blog]

 

 Leaving the University of Alberta’s faculty of pharmacy and pharmaceutical sciences in 1993, Robert Foster wanted to practise “some cool science” and knew the necessary funds would be easier to attain through his own biopharmaceutical company. Getting appropriate levels of funding for drug discovery through the university was “basically impossible,” says Isotechnika Inc.’s chairman and CEO. “We’re looking at maybe about $800 million to $1 billion to get a drug all the way from the discovery stage to the patient.” Starting with Foster, his colleague Richard Lewanczuk and one technician, staff at Edmonton’s Isotechnika worked hard to find a drug they felt could advance the furthest. They worked on the discovery of different drugs, for antibiotics and lowering blood pressure. By 1996, Isotechnika had the beginnings of voclosporin.Voclosporin is based on cyclosporin, around since 1982. Like its predecessor, voclosporin suppresses the immune system and reduces transplanted organ rejection. Cyclosporin, by contrast, has many side-effects, from changing a patient’s risk profile for cardiovascular disease to affecting cholesterol, lipids and kidney function.By 1995, scientists had determined cyclosporin’s reaction in the body and Isotechnika was able to “use that knowledge to come up with a more potent version of cyclosporin,” says Foster. “Anything you can do to help alleviate some of the side-effects should be helpful to the patient’s overall health picture.” With only cyclosporin and Japan’s tacrolimus (with which patients risk developing Type 1 diabetes) currently used in transplant patients, “the market is predicted in 2010 to be US$4 billion just for those two drugs,” Foster continues. “If we can chisel our way into that huge market, even if we only get 20% or 25% of the market, that’s still a billion dollars worth of sales.” Isotechnika’s voclosporin is in the final stages of human clinical testing and has been used in more than 1,600 patients. Now with a staff of around 35, Isotechnika has also conducted clinical trials on other diseases caused by an overactive immune system, such as uveitis (inflammation of the eye) and psoriasis. Ready to get voclosporin to market, Isotechnika announced a partnership with Montreal’s Paladin Labs in May. With Isotechnika’s strength in research and development and Paladin’s strength in acquiring and selling products, “the two teams together seem to be in a real natural marriage.” “Right now the biotech industry in general is in rough shape,” Foster explains. “With Paladin, we’re reorganizing our company through a ‘plan of arrangement.’ We’re bringing in Paladin as a major shareholder (holding 19% of the company). The way we’re picking up Paladin is to reorganize Isotechnika so that all current shareholders together with Paladin move into a new company called Isotechnika Pharma Inc. “This deal is going to make us stable enough that we’ll be able to ride out some economic storms and come out landing on both feet. So it’s good for both companies.”