That $57 million deal in December 1999 may have saved NPS, the Salt Lake City-based drug developer: Among the assets of Mississauga, Ontario-based Allelix were two promising compounds that today are NPS flagship products on the threshold of potentially lucrative debuts: Preos and teduglutide.
"That merger with Allelix put NPS on the cusp of being a major 21st century biotechnology company," Jensen, former NPS general counsel and senior vice president, declared in his keynote address Monday to the Utah/Canada Life Science Technology Partnering Symposium.
Preos, formerly known as ALX111, is on track for U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval as early as next spring. And Jensen, now a private investor, believes the drug's ability to halt - and in some cases even reverse - bone loss in osteoporosis sufferers will make Preos a big money-maker.
Teduglutide, too, has entered final, Phase III clinical trials for use in treating Short Bowel Syndrome, an ailment characterized by malabsorption of nutrients because of small intestine damage. The drug also is nearing the end of Phase II trials directed at Crohn's disease, another painful intestinal disorder.
Since its founding in 1986, NPS has spent hundreds of millions of dollars to push its drug candidates along the tortuous path to regulatory approval. Last week, the company reported a $38.3 million net loss, but its revenues have begun to climb, reaching $4.7 million - a five-fold jump since this time last year.
That is just the beginning for the Utah-Canada company, Jensen believes. In developing, testing and preparing to market the drug, NPS "has almost sold the children in order to have the money to do Preos," he admits. "But when this drug is approved, the market will reward this company."
In welcoming about 30 Utah and Canadian biotech representatives and Canadian Consul General Michael Fine to the symposium, Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. called for Utah to strengthen ties to its neighbor to the far north.
"The life sciences industry is one of our key cluster initiatives that we are promoting for growth in Utah," the governor said. "We welcome this opportunity to collaborate with Canada, our No. 1 trading partner."
Consul Fine echoed the sentiment, later joining with Huntsman in introducing Scott Parker, president emeritus of Intermountain Health Care, as Canada's honorary consul of Utah. Parker will "facilitate mutually beneficial trade and technology links" between the regions, Fine said.
Delegates, who stopped briefly in Salt Lake City en route to the two-day BioWest Conference trade meetings in Denver beginning today, heard several pitches from both Canadian and Utah biotech companies vying for cross-border business.
Kellie Templeton, a Canadian trade commissioner, said her nation's Alberta Province in particular had much in common with Utah. Both regions have strong biotech industries and scientific expertise, she said, though "research and development costs 20 percent less [in Canada] than the U.S."
However, Michael Paul, chief operating officer of LineaGen Research, touted Utah's lead in discovering "biomarkers" - molecular/genetic flags associated with various diseases - as something Canadians could not yet match.
"[Biomarkers represent] a revolution in health care, with scientific, regulatory and market forces driving [research] toward the personalization of medicines," Paul said, noting such "targeted therapeutics" could usher in a new age of more effective treatment.
bmims@sltrib.com
