Press Room

Press Release / Sep 08, 2009

Hovione’s TwinCaps® inhaler delivers successfully in Phase III clinical trials for influenza

Loures, Portugal, 8th September, 2009. Hovione is pleased to announce that its TwinCaps® inhaler licensees Daiichi Sankyo Co. Ltd. (Tokyo, Japan) and Biota Holdings Ltd (Victoria, Australia) have both announced successful Phase III trials for CS-8958, a new long-acting neuraminidase inhibitor for treatment of influenza (known as a prodrug of laninamivir).

CS-8958, co-owned by Daiichi Sankyo and Biota, is delivered by TwinCaps®, a patented dry powder inhaler which Hovione specifically designed for the treatment and prevention of influenza infections in both seasonal and pandemics situations. The device was designed to be used across a broad range of patients’ inspiratory flow rates and requires a single priming action prior to use.

In the Phase III trials conducted by Daiichi Sankyo, a single inhaled dose of CS-8958 was shown to be as effective as oseltamivir (TamifluⓇ) administered orally twice daily for 5 days (total of 10 doses). A parallel Phase II/III trial of CS-8958 in paediatric patients also met the primary and secondary endpoints compared to oseltamivir.

CS-8958 is an important new treatment against influenza as current neuraminidase inhibitors for influenza require daily or more frequent dosing, compared to CS-8958 which requires one dose for treatment and possibly once-weekly dosing for prophylaxis). The ability to dose patients on a weekly, or even less frequent, basis offers numerous benefits. Firstly, the volume of product stored in stockpile reserves may be smaller and secondly, a single-dose treatment will offer better patient compliance and convenience.

TwinCaps®, for which patent applications were filed world-wide in 2006, is an innovative inhaler, delivering a significant dose of drug to the lung, in a simple device comprising only two plastic components. Daiichi Sankyo and Biota have a worldwide exclusive license to use TwinCaps® for the treatment and prevention of influenza infections. TwinCaps® is available for licensing for use in other indications including antibiotic and vaccine delivery.

Hovione is now planning for large-scale manufacturing of the TwinCaps® devices. Daiichi Sankyo is intending to submit its market authorization application for Japan by March 2010, while Biota continues to advance the clinical development program required to support registration in the United States and UK.

About Hovione

Hovione is a leading developer of inhaled drug products, with experience in anti-virals and proteins delivered by inhalation, as well as inhaler development. It is an international company with 50 years’ experience in Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient integrated development and compliant manufacture, from molecule to unit dose. In the inhalation area, Hovione is the only independent company offering such a broad range of services.

For further information about Hovione, please visit the Hovione site atwww.hovione.com or contact Corporate Communications (Isabel Pina, + 351 21 982 9362, e-mail: hello@hovione.com)

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A mechanical engineering graduate, this Frenchman is the CEO of the Portuguese pharmaceutical contract manufacturer Hovione. Still owned by the founding family, the company was awarded the 2025 ‘Léonardo de Vinci’ Prize, which recognizes the innovative and successful succession planning of family businesses. With an international career behind him, Jean-Luc Herbeaux is almost more fluent in English than in his native language. At 58, this Frenchman with iceberg-blue eyes is the CEO of Hovione. Founded in the late 1950s, this Portuguese group, with 100% family ownership, has just received the ‘Léonardo de Vinci’ Prize, which highlights entrepreneurial successes tinged with family legacy. While this mid-sized company with a turnover of €500 million maintains a low profile, its pharmaceutical contract manufacturing business is just as obscure to the general public. "Yet, the market for contract manufacturers, or 'contract development manufacturing organizations,' is worth $200 billion", emphasizes the CEO, who has been working in this microcosm for two decades. 500 patents Aware of the stakes, he does not deny "the pharma industry's dependence on Indian and Chinese capabilities". "The fact remains that the trend is toward the regionalization of supply chains, with European manufacturers producing for the Old Continent, American manufacturers for their own market, and so on", he says. And to highlight the foresight of Diane and Ivan Villax, the founding couple, "who thought globally from the very beginning". As a result, the group, with its 500 patents, has factories in China, the United States, and Ireland, without neglecting its home territory. This is evident by the site currently under construction on the banks of the Tagus River, following a €200 million investment. "The heavy engineering and compliance aspects are being finalized, "he explains, emphasizing that this highly regulated sector "is under a microscope". He knows this all too well, as Hovione claims to be involved in 5 to 10% of the drugs approved each year by the FDA, the American drug regulatory agency. Professor from Houston to Japan “In this small world, having a good image is important: this is the case with Jean-Luc, passionate about his work, but who knows how to demystify things”, observes Elie Vannier, former chairman of the board of Hovione. He adds that having an international profile is a strength “in this ecosystem where talent and clients are international”. For his part, Jean-Luc retains from his numerous flights “a taste for films of all genres and from all countries”. The son of an administrative employee in secondary schools and an auto insurance expert, the youngest of three children moved around according to his parents' job transfers. He was born in Meaux, grew up in Chartres, and attended the University of Technology of Compiègne, “which already offered programs abroad”. Thus, he left a mechanical engineering internship at a Dior perfume factory to join the University of Houston in Texas, "carrying a 20 kg backpack". Despite his then-limited command of English, he earned a doctorate, became a professor, and met an American woman who would become his wife and the mother of their two children. Next came the University of Kanazawa in Japan. Alas! Disappointed by the academic world, "where you have to fight to get resources", he succumbed to the allure of industry and joined the American chemical company Rohm and Haas, which had fallen under the control of the German company Evonik. 80 million patients He spent twenty years there, in Germany and Singapore, before "accepting the offers from headhunters". He then accepted Hovione's offer, who appointed him Chief Operating Officer in 2020, then CEO two years later, making him the first CEO not from the founding family. The family remains the sole shareholder, which earned the company the ‘Léonardo de Vinci’ Prize, created by the Association Les Hénokiens and the Clos Lucé. Having settled near Lisbon, he substituted walking for combat sports, "having been burned by the injuries of some friends". He also mentioned that Hovione, whose clients include 19 of the world's 20 largest pharmaceutical companies, helps treat more than 80 million patients. (Translated version) Read the original and full article in French on LesEchos.fr

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