REG - Arecor Therapeutics - Orderly Cessation of Tetris Pharma Operations

Arecor TherapeuticsAnnouncement

10/01/2025 07:45

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RNS Number : 8261S  Arecor Therapeutics PLC  10 January 2025

Arecor Therapeutics plc

("Arecor" or the "Group")

 

ARECOR ANNOUNCES ORDERLY CESSATION OF TETRIS PHARMA OPERATIONS AND MUTUAL
AGREEMENT WITH XERIS TO RETURN OGLUO® RIGHTS

 

-      Arecor to focus on high value R&D opportunities presented by
advances in insulin and its oral delivery platform

 

Cambridge, UK, 10 January 2025: Arecor Therapeutics plc (AIM: AREC), the
biopharmaceutical group advancing today's therapies to enable healthier lives,
today announces its intention during 2025 to cease operations within the
Group's subsidiary Tetris Pharma, and a mutual agreement with Xeris BioPharma
Holdings, Inc. (Nasdaq: XERS) ("Xeris") to return the Group's rights to
Ogluo® as part of the Group's strategic focus on those areas which best
leverage its platform and resources to deliver transformational value
opportunities.

 

This action follows a recent strategic review of Tetris Pharma, including
analysis of the future commercial opportunity for the business's lead product,
the ready to-use glucagon auto-injector pen for severe hypoglycaemia, Ogluo®,
which represents the majority of Tetris Pharma's product sales. The review
determined that although Ogluo® remains a proven product with important
potential patient benefits, rising supply chain costs and fixed selling prices
in the licensed territories have significantly reduced margins. The extended
timeline required to achieve breakeven no longer presents an optimal
investment case. In addition, our 2025 revenue outlook for non-Ogluo® sales
has been materially reduced in light of our partner losing a key NHS tender,
materially reducing 2025 revenues for non-Ogluo® products. As a result of the
review of Tetris Pharma, the decision was made to fully impair goodwill and
intangibles of approximately £3 million in 2024.

 

This strategic decision to cease Tetris Pharma operations will enable the
Group to focus its efforts and resources on opportunities that offer higher
potential for value creation. These include progression of its novel
ultra-concentrated, ultra-rapid acting insulin candidate, AT278, where
strategic co-development partnering discussions are progressing at pace, as
well as the further development of its oral peptide delivery platform. The
development of an oral GLP-1 receptor agonist product continues to generate
promising data with non-clinical pharmacokinetic (PK) studies on track to
commence in 1H 2025 and the potential for rapid expansion into the broader
peptide field.

 

Sarah Howell, Chief Executive Officer of Arecor, said: "This strategic
decision consolidates Arecor's focus on research and development in areas in
which our innovative Arestat™ technology can deliver transformational
opportunities. These include the progression of our next-generation insulin
portfolio and innovation in the field of the oral delivery of peptides. We
will also continue to progress our partnered portfolio of Arestat(TM) enabled
superior therapeutics under our revenue generating technology licensing
model. These present the greatest opportunities for the Group to build
significant value and we remain confident in our strategy and excited about
the opportunities for Arecor."

 

Ogluo® is commercialised by Tetris Pharma under a license and supply
agreement with Xeris BioPharma Holdings, Inc. (Nasdaq: XERS) which grants
Tetris Pharma rights for the sale and distribution of the product in the
EEA, UK, and Switzerland. Arecor and Xeris have agreed upon a mutual
termination of the license agreement, subject to discussions with both
regulators and patient groups. Alternative glucagon products are widely
available in all countries.

 

This announcement contains inside information for the purposes of the
retained UK version of the EU Market Abuse Regulation (EU) 596/2014 ("UK
MAR").

-ENDS-

 

Analyst conference call today

Dr Sarah Howell, Chief Executive Officer, and David Ellam, Interim Chief
Financial Officer, will host a conference call for analysts and investors at
8.45am UK time today. Join via webcast here
(https://sparklive.lseg.com/ARECORTHERAPEUTICS/events/6bcf7b70-dc7c-4274-832e-bc13c92d95a7/arecor-announces-orderly-cessation-of-tetris-pharma-operations-and-mutual-agreement-with-xeris-to-return-ogluo-rights)
. Please contact ICR Healthcare for further details on
arecor@icrhealthcare.com.

 

 

For more information, please contact:

 

 Arecor Therapeutics plc                                       www.arecor.com
 Dr Sarah Howell, Chief Executive Officer                      Tel: +44 (0) 1223 426060

                                                               Email: info@arecor.com (mailto:info@arecor.com)
 David Ellam, Interim Chief Financial Officer                  Tel: +44 (0) 1223 426060

                                                               Email: info@arecor.com (mailto:info@arecor.com)

 Singer Capital Markets Advisory LLP (NOMAD and Joint Broker)
 Phil Davies, Sam Butcher                                      Tel: +44 (0) 20 7496 3000

 WG Partners LLP (Joint Broker)
 Nigel Barnes, Satheesh Nadarajah                              Tel: +44 (0) 20 3705 9321

 David Wilson, Claes Spang

 ICR Healthcare
 Chris Gardner, David Daley, Lindsey Neville                   Tel: +44 (0) 20 3709 5700

                                                               Email: arecor@icrhealthcare.com (mailto:arecor@icrhealthcare.com)

 

Notes to Editors

 

About Arecor

Arecor Therapeutics plc is a globally focused biopharmaceutical company
transforming patient care by bringing innovative medicines to market through
the enhancement of existing therapeutic products. By applying our innovative
proprietary technology platform, Arestat™, we are developing an internal
portfolio of proprietary products in diabetes and other indications, as well
as working with leading pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies to deliver
therapeutic products. The Arestat™ platform is supported by an extensive
patent portfolio.  For further details please see our website, www.arecor.com
(http://www.arecor.com)

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