BioCentury
ARTICLE | Strategy

Back to Ipsen’s roots

Why Ipsen is revving up clinical-stage BD and adding a venture fund

July 14, 2017 8:34 PM UTC
The company will do this in part by returning to its roots as a clinical stage asset aggregator, seeking compounds with at least some human data in cancer, neurology and endocrinology indications. The second failure was tasquinimod, which Ipsen in-licensed from Active Biotech in April 2011 as the molecule was entering Phase III testing to treat metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC). The partners discontinued development in 2015after the trial failed.Meanwhile, Ipsen had been investing heavily in two internal research platforms that it expected to be longer-term growth drivers: a botulinum toxin platform and a technology for generating therapeutic analogs of naturally occurring peptides.

After spending the last six years plugging revenue holes via licensing and M&A, Ipsen Group is once again on track to meet the 2020 financial targets it set at the beginning of the decade. But the late-stage deals came at the expense of filling the pipeline, while the research-driven strategy set in motion at that time has not borne fruit.

The company’s pipeline has a plethora of line extensions for marketed products, but just six new therapeutics and one imaging agent. The most advanced programs are in Phase II testing (see “Thinning on Top”). ...

BCIQ Company Profiles

Ipsen Group