TaiMed Biologics Inc (中裕新藥) yesterday downplayed concerns about the company’s choice of distribution partner for its new HIV/AIDS drug TMB355, citing a robust business plan and advantages in tax management.
The company last month announced that it had inked an exclusive 12-year contract with Montreal-based Theratechnologies Inc to market its new drug in the US and Canada.
Analysts were downbeat on the partnership, casting doubts on the Canadian company’s ability to market the new drug compared with large companies.
“While Theratechnologies might not be a big name, marketing our product would be the company’s top priority,” TaiMed chief financial officer James Chen (陳怡成) said at an investors’ conference in Taipei.
Chen said larger companies might not be as motivated in marketing TMB355, as they tend to have many products in the mix, including their own new drug development initiatives.
He said that TMB355 would benefit from Theratechnologies’ history of working with HIV specialists across North America as a distributor of EGRIFTA — a treatment to reduce excess abdominal fat in HIV patients with lipodystrophy.
Chen added that the payment terms and timetable offered by Theratechnologies would yield more tax gains based on International Financial Reporting Standards 15 (IFRS), in addition to benefits from an agreement signed between Taiwan and Canada.
As for concerns over lower-than-expected payment terms for TMB355, Chen said that TaiMed retains a high level of control in how the new drug would be marketed in the future.
“You will see some of our peers booking cash income immediately, but their partners have effectively taken control of the drugs through licensing deals,” he said.
By contrast, once TMB355 gains approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the company will seek other distribution partners for larger markets such as China, Chen said.
“Drug resistance is among the most challenging aspects of developing treatments for HIV/AIDS, and the situation is made worse when patients do not follow the regimen and administer the required injections daily,” he added.
TMB355 requires only a single injection daily, and its only competitor on the market is Fuzeon, which requires multiple daily injections, with 98 percent of patients using the drug reporting adverse side effects on their injection sites, Chen said.
Meanwhile, an intravenous injection of TMB355 has entered third-phase clinical trials, while an intramuscular and intradermal injection variant of the drug is undergoing first and second-phase trials.
The drug is expected to be approved by the US FDA in the first quarter of next year, he added.
The global market for HIV/AIDS treatments is expected to grow 7 percent this year to NT$500 billion, the company said, adding that more than 35 million people are infected with HIV worldwide, and less than 30 percent receive treatment.
Last year, the company reported an operating loss of NT$471 million, or losses of NT$2.16 per share.
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