Boston Pharma to Buy, Expand Phoundry in RTP

-- By Barry Teater, NCBiotech Writer

Phoundry Pharmaceuticals, a peptide drug-discovery startup in Research Triangle Park, will be acquired by Boston-based Intarcia Therapeutics for an undisclosed price only seven months after Phoundry was spun out of GlaxoSmithKline.

Intarcia said in a news release it would retain all nine of Phoundry’s employees and keep the company’s presence in the Park, where it expects to double the head count within 12 to 18 months.

Intarcia is a privately held biopharmaceutical company that is developing enhanced drug formulations for type 2 diabetes and obesity for delivery under the skin by its surgically implantable osmotic mini-pump. The mini-pump, the size of a matchstick, can deliver drugs slowly and continuously for as long as a year.

“We are excited about joining Intarcia, and combining our respective technologies,” said Paul Feldman, CEO and co-founder of Phoundry, who will serve on Intarcia’s executive leadership team as vice president and head of discovery and translational medicine. 

Coming: 'Novel, transformative medicines'

“Combining our highly potent, selective and stable peptides with Intarcia’s ability to dial in the optimal dose for maximum efficacy, while eliminating regular self-injections with once or twice yearly administration, should set the stage for a number of novel, transformative medicines that can fundamentally change the standard of care and dramatically improve adherence with therapy over time.”

As a result of the Phoundry acquisition and a collaboration with the Swiss antibody-therapeutics company Numab, Intarcia said it would have three near-term R&D programs targeting diabetes and obesity, each involving its Phase III investigational therapy, ITCA 650, combined with peptides or antibody fragments.

Companies share 'a common vision'

Kurt Graves, chairman, president and CEO of Intarcia, said his company and Phoundry “share a common vision that combination therapies of optimized peptides have the potential to mimic and extend the metabolic benefits and weight loss potential associated with bariatric surgery.”

Graves said Phoundry’s 120 years of combined experience in peptide drug discovery and translational medicine insights would be invaluable to Intarcia. “Their team has a proven track record of producing medicines, and they have worked for years to design optimized peptides to specifications that are a perfect fit for our targets and our mini-pump delivery systems.”

With recent data showing that up to 52 percent of the U.S. population has type 2 diabetes or pre-diabetes and that the incidence of obesity is over 35 percent, “there is an urgent and growing need for game-changing therapies that truly disrupt the status quo trends and the devastating human and economic consequences,” Graves said.

Phounded in Phebruary, Sold in September

Phoundry was created in February by six scientists who had spent six years as part of the Enteroendocrine Discovery Performance Unit of GlaxoSmithKline. Durham’s A.M. Pappas & Associates, the parent company of Pappas Ventures, is a co-founder of Phoundry and led the startup’s seed financing.

The North Carolina Biotechnology Center awarded Phoundry a $50,000 Company Inception Loan in June, but company officials decided in July to decline the funding as other significant options became reality. Entrepreneurs often note that the NCBiotech vetting process, resulting in loan approvals, are significant credibility builders that enable the startups to more readily secure follow-on funding.

In addition to Paul Feldman joining Intarcia, Andrew Young, Phoundry’s co-founder and chief scientific officer, will become vice president and chief scientific officer at Intarcia, and Ved Srivastava, Phoundry’s co-founder and vice president of chemistry, will become vice president of peptide chemistry. Co-founders Mark Paulik, James Way and Shane Roller will also join Intarcia.