Egalet seeks partners for controlled release drug delivery

Unlike most innovators in the drug sector, Daniel Bar-Shalom didn’t spend years closeted in a laboratory, but instead drew inspiration from a working life on the front line as a dispensing pharmacist.

His experience at a university hospital pharmacy in Israel showed him how to improvise to meet the individual requirements of the patients.

“When I first came to Denmark I was presented with the problem of general morning stiffness like rheumatism,” said Bar-Shalom. “After I analysed the problem, I realised it could be solved by something as simple as aspirin. But the problem was not of which drug, but rather the timing of the drug. It has to be given before waking up in the morning.”

In 1989, three years after following his Danish wife to Denmark, he patented his first invention, which now forms the foundation of Egalet’s drug delivery technology. This is an easy to manufacture a tablet that can incorporate almost any drug into a polymeric matrix, which is eroded by body fluids at a constant rate.

This led the formation of Egalet, a company that Bar-Shalom established with CEO Jan Quistgaard six years later. And now Egalet is looking for companies interested in development partnerships or licensing agreements for its products and technology.

These days the technology is generating a buzz from venture capital funds, with Atlas Venture and Index Ventures joining existing shareholders Bio Fund (Finland), Dansk Kapitalanlæg (Denmark), Danske Bank (Denmark) and QueQuoin Holdings Ltd. (US) in a $28 million second round funding in mid-March.

Egalet’s tablets are made by an injection moulding technique that is similar to that used for Lego bricks. The technology can be used for virtually any type of medicine, including oral delivery of peptide drugs, and, says the company, provides controlled release with precision.  

Quistgaard said the recent funding would last the company for two years as Egalet focuses on driving its two lead compounds, an oral controlled formulation of morphine for pain, and an unspecified drug for treating cardiovascular disease, into Phase III clinical trials.

The Copenhagen-based company currently has about 30 staff is expected to double its size in the next three and four months.