Biopharma Company Arecor raises £6m for revolutionary diabetes treatments

Arecor, the UK-based biopharmaceutical formulation company, has raised £6 million from new and existing investors to develop groundbreaking pharmaceutical drugs to transform the treatment of diabetes. The fundraising was led by Calculus Capital, Albion Capital, and Downing Ventures.  BioScience Managers Limited, the international healthcare investment firm, advised Downing Ventures.Through the application of its technology platform, Arecor is creating faster working, more effective drugs that help progress the creation of the next generation of artificial pancreas systems. The Company’s ultra-rapid acting insulin and ultra-concentrated insulins more closely mimic the insulin profile and response to glucose of healthy individuals, improving health outcomes and quality of life for people living with diabetes while reducing the wider costs to health services and society.

Arecor has developed a series of differentiated and proprietary formulations of generic insulin and glucagon drugs, which are used in the regulation of blood glucose. In people with diabetes, insulin is either lacking, not enough is produced or when produced, the insulin cannot be used effectively. Arecor plans to complete a series of first-in-man clinical trials for each of its three diabetic compounds and ultimately to partner with specialist diabetes companies for late stage clinical studies and global market access. The company’s insulin and glucagon products, which are set to transform diabetes treatments, could have peak annual sales of between $200 million and $1 billion each.

Biological drugs tend to degrade quickly in liquid formulations, limiting shelf life, increasing manufacturing costs, reducing clinical impact and, in extreme cases, the action can prevent a drug from reaching the market. The technology developed by Arecor stabilises complex biopharmaceuticals such as peptides and proteins in liquid format, preventing drug breakdown. Ultimately, Arecor looks to deliver superior biopharmaceutical product profiles to meet significant unmet medical needs across a broad range of therapeutic areas.

Sarah Howell, CEO of Arecor, said: “Diabetes is fast becoming one of the most challenging diseases for the UK and societies around the world. While current treatments are effective, diabetes still impacts significantly on an individual’s quality of life and on increased cost pressure to healthcare systems, such as the NHS. Our next generation diabetes products, enabled by our innovative and proprietary formulation technology, will lead to better treatments and improved health outcomes and quality of life for people living with this debilitating chronic condition.  This investment will accelerate the clinical development of our diabetes speciality pharma portfolio and I am excited to be working with our new investors.”

Alexander Crawford, Investment Director, Calculus Capital, said: “Arecor is applying its unique and highly regarded reformulation technology which will help transform the growing diabetes market. As lead investor, we believe this is an exciting new phase from Arecor in the development of their technology and strong growth potential.”

Dr Christoph Ruedig, Partner, Albion Capital, said: “We have followed Arecor for some time and are excited by the societal value of its fast onset, short duration action insulin. Its technology is highly differentiated and the company is leading the sector in the area of stabilising liquid formulations for injectable drugs. We look forward to working with the strong leadership team to bring this extraordinary proposition to fruition and in doing so, aid many diabetic patients across the UK and beyond.”

Richard Lewis, Investment Director, Downing said: “As an investment opportunity, Arecor combines a solid and high margin technology business alongside a proprietary product offering that fulfils major unmet medical need.  As a result, we believe that the diabetes pipeline should successfully attract quality international commercial partners.”

Jeremy Curnock Cook, Managing Partner, BioScience Managers said: “As the incidence of diabetes increases around the world there becomes a more urgent need to find better solutions to help patients manage the condition effectively. Arecor’s formulation technology and pipeline of diabetes products are ideally positioned to address these rising threats.