sitagliptin (Januvia), Takeda Pharmaceutical’s pioglitazone (Actos), and Sanofi-Aventis’ insulin glargine (Lantus). Amylin and Lilly have completed their clinical trials, and turned in their application to the FDA during the heat of the proxy battle in May. The company now expects to hear a decision on whether they can start selling the product by the first week of March, Bradbury says.
“We think we have a unique value proposition for physicians and patients,” Bradbury says.
Investors are clearly focused on this exenatide once-weekly program, but they aren’t showing a lot of confidence that Amylin will maximize this opportunity. The stock has lost about a third of its value over the past year, closing yesterday at $13.13. It has burned through a breathtaking $1.87 billion of investment since it was founded in September 1987, according to its most recent quarterly report. Even though Amylin sells two drugs for diabetes, exenatide and pramlintide (Symlin), it has never been profitable.
Even in biotech, where it takes decades and sometimes hundreds of millions to develop a new drug, the bleeding is supposed to stop at some point, especially when a company has more than one product on the market. Last November, Amylin cut 340 jobs in an effort to curb operating expenses. The company eliminated another 200 sales rep jobs in May, with an eye toward becoming cash-flow positive by the end of 2010.
Entering this year, Bradbury says, Amylin laid out five strategic goals to get things going in the right direction, and he says he’s been repeating the mantra to every department of the company lately.
Here are the five goals, and some comments on what Bradbury had to say about each of them during our conversation:
—No. 1. To boost revenue from its existing product, exenatide, for diabetes. Amylin shares tumbled last fall after the FDA warned physicians about the risk of pancreatitis
