DuoCort and Recipharm in risk-sharing manufacturing collaboration

DuoCort Pharma has made and agreement with Recipharm under which Recipharm will scale-up manufacturing of DuoCort’s treatment for Addison’s disease. The companies say the scale-up agreement represents an innovative risk sharing collaboration in which Recipharm, a contract development and manufacturing specialist, will co-invest in the scale-up along with DuoCort.

Earlier this year DuoCort filed for marketing authorisation in the EU for its new treatment for the rare and life-threatening disease adrenal insufficiency, often referred to as Addison’s disease.

Although cortisol replacement therapy for adrenal insufficiency has been around for a long time, none of these treatments are able to mimic the diurnal release profiles of this hormone. DuoCort’s treatment is released in different amounts over the course of a day, thereby improving treatment outcomes.

“We are very pleased to be working with an organisation of Recipharm’s calibre to scale-up our tablet manufacturing process. It is a real endorsement of the quality and commercial potential of our drug development that Recipharm has chosen to co-invest in this with us,” said Maria Forss, CEO of DuoCort Pharma.

“The agreement with DuoCort Pharma fits perfectly with our business model through which the Recipharm Venture Fund invests in projects where we can make important contributions through our development and manufacturing capabilities,” said Carl-Johan Spak, Executive Vice President of Recipharm.

DuoCort has its origins among researchers at the Sahlgrenska University Hospital in Gothenburg and at Uppsala University in Sweden. The company’s new treatment for Addison’s disease is a once daily dual-release hydrocortisone oral tablet. It has an outer layer that releases the drug immediately and an inner core that releases the drug over the day to mimic the body’s own release profile of cortisol.