Orchid takes up structural consolidation of global NDD research

Mumbai, July 31 (UNI) Orchid Chemicals and Pharmaceuticals Ltd will take up consolidation of its New Drug Discovery (NDD) research activities under a common umbrella.

Announcing this, the company said as part of this initiative, Orchid and Bexel Pharmaceuticals, Inc have reached an understanding by which it would extend its ownership in Bexel from the current 74 per cent to 100 per cent.

Both Companies believe that bringing all drug discovery activities under a unified structure will provide seamless integration of the several drug discovery programmes being pursued at the company and Bexel while retaining the advantages of having a discovery front-end in the US and a discovery cum developmental back-end at the company, Chennai.

The company has already established a wholly-owned subsidiary, Orchid Research Laboratories Ltd (ORLL), to channel its drug discovery work. The arrangement involves buy-out by the company of the shareholding of the US founders of Bexel Pharmaceuticals for a cash consideration of USD three million. The founders and key employees of Bexel would be granted 6,50,000 stock options as per standard Orchid ESOP guidelines, which they will subscribe at the grant price.

In an independent arrangement, Bexel would be providing an earn-out to the principal founder of Bexel in the event of an out-licensing deal for BLX-1,002 materialising in a prescribed timeframe based on the Phase II clinical trials that are planned.

The managerial andscientific organization of Bexel will continue as an integral part of the new structure, providing continuity and commitment to the Company's broader drug discovery thrust.

Bexel's anti-diabetes molecule BLX-1,002 has progressed the most among these, having completed Phase I safety and tolerability studies in healthy human volunteers as well as safety and tolerability studies in diabetic patients.

The Phase I human clinical trials conducted in four stages so far have been successful without any adverse side effects. Besides glucose lowering in diabetic patients, the compound also showed additional benefit of lowering of triglycerides and hypertension.

Bexel and the Orchid are now planning to conduct more elaborate Phase II human clinical trials on BLX-1002 in the context of its efficacy in multiple indications. These will be conducted in two stages of a 28-day human clinical study followed by a 90-day study if necessary, to generate significant additional data on the compound.

Besides BLX-1,002 and its supportive anti-diabetic NCE pipeline, the company and Bexel have several leads with therapeutic potential in varied areas. These include a new anti-obesity lead and two anti-inflammation and anti-cancer leads from the company, which are targeted to move into human clinical studies upon the completion of the advanced pre-clinical studies currently underway.

UNI SN GB AW1635