Super-fast-acting Prandial Insulin Product Receives £0.5m Innovate UK Boost

Super-fast product addresses critical unmet need in development of next generation
artificial pancreas systems”
“Novel formulation significantly accelerates absorption of insulin post injection – accelerating the onset of glucose lowering.”

Cambridge, UK., 13 February 2019: Arecor Ltd (“the Company”), the specialty pharmaceutical company leveraging its innovative and proprietary formulation technology to develop superior treatments for a range of disease areas, including diabetes, is pleased to announce that the Company has been awarded a £0.5 million grant from Innovate UK, the UK’s innovation agency, to advance the Company’s proprietary super-fast-acting prandial insulin product, AT270.

Next generation superfast prandial insulin 

AT270 is a novel formulation of meal-time (prandial) insulin that has been designed by Arecor to significantly accelerate the absorption of insulin post injection, which in turn, accelerates the onset of glucose lowering. Prandial insulin is used by diabetics to control the rise in blood glucose after eating.

The development of even faster acting insulins that more closely match a healthy body’s response to blood glucose, remains a critical unmet need in the development of fully closed-loop insulin pump systems, otherwise known as the “artificial pancreas”.

The artificial pancreas has the potential to significantly reduce the self-management burden of diabetes for patients, as well as improve their overall blood glucose control, thereby mitigating the short- and long-term negative health implications caused by the disease. Such systems enable automatic blood glucose control based on a combination of continuous glucose measurement, smart algorithms to decide how much insulin to deliver and an insulin pump to deliver the calculated amount of insulin.

A key limitation however of the first-generation artificial pancreas system is that the patient, or carer, must manually control their insulin delivery around meal-times. Furthermore, the current best in class prandial insulins are not absorbed quickly enough, post injection, to effectively manage blood glucose in a fully  losed-loop system, post prandially.

Arecor therefore, looks forward to accelerating work on its prandial insulin product, AT270, so as to address this critical unmet need for a more physiologically effective and super-fast acting insulin – and in so doing, to deliver a fully closed-loop artificial pancreas.

Dr Sarah Howell, CEO at Arecor, commented:

“We are delighted and very grateful to receive this prestigious and valuable award from Innovate UK, which will support an acceleration in the further development of our work to deliver super-fast-acting insulin for use in next-generation artificial pancreas systems. This is an important product within our portfolio and part of our broader strategic aim to leverage our proprietary ArestatTM formulation technology, in the development of superior products to improve the health outcomes and quality of life of patients living with debilitating diseases.“

For more information, please contact:
Dr Sarah Howell
Arecor Limited
Chief Executive officer
Tel: +44 (0) 1223 426060
Email: sarah.howell@arecor.com

Mr Tarquin Edwards
Peckwater PR
Mob : +44 (0) 7879 458 364
Email : tarquin.edwards@peckwaterpr.co.uk

About Arecor (www.arecor.com) Arecor Limited is a leader in developing superior biopharmaceuticals through the application of an innovative formulation technology platform. Arecor is leveraging this platform to develop a portfolio of proprietary products that will enable improved treatments for diabetes via the innovative reformulation of approved proteins and peptides. Arecor’s product portfolio also includes:

• Novel insulin formulations to deliver ultra-rapid acting insulin analogs and;
• Ultra-concentrated rapid acting insulin to enable the miniaturisation of devices,
• Stable aqueous glucagon for emergency and artificial pancreas use, and
• A series of undisclosed pre-clinical programmes. In addition, Arecor partners with leading pharmaceutical and biotech companies to deliver superior reformulations of their proprietary products, which would otherwise not be possible using conventional formulation science. (www.arecor.com)

About ArestatTM

Arecor has significant experience and a proven track record in applying the ArestatTM formulation technology platform to deliver superior biopharmaceutical product profiles across a broad range of proteins, peptides and vaccines.

About Arecor’s Patent Portfolio

Arecor’s technology is protected by 28 patent families, including 26 granted patents. Arecor has been exploiting its technology in partnerships with pharmaceutical companies, successfully developing superior product profiles, including stable high-concentration antibodies with low viscosity, reformulations of lyophilised or freeze-dried products into stable liquids or stable vaccines that can be used outside the cold chain.

About Innovate UK
Innovate UK is the UK’s innovation agency. It works with people, companies and partner organisations to find and drive the science and technology innovations that will grow the UK economy. For further information visit: www.innovateuk.ukri.org/

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