Who We Are
Unigene is a leader in the design, delivery, manufacture and
development of peptide-based therapeutics. Peptides are a
rapidly growing therapeutic class with more than 130 programs
in active development, and more than 50 peptide-based therapeutics have reached the market.
In June 2010, Ashleigh Palmer, an experience biopharma turnaround executive was appointed President and Chief Executive Officer. In the third quarter of 2010, the Company completed a comprehensive business audit and situational analysis resulting in a new strategy for the Company, an organizational realignment with the creation of two highly focused strategic business units, Unigene Biotechnologies and Unigene Therapeutics, and the appointment of a new executive leadership team.
Peptides are a rapidly growing therapeutic class with more than 130 programs currently in active development throughout the industry. To date, more than fifty peptide-based therapeutics have reached the market. Our goal is to see our Peptelligence(TM) platform, which represents a distinctive set of capabilities and assets, incorporated into as many peptide programs as possible as they advance through development towards commercialization.
Our Peptelligence(TM) encompasses extensive intellectual property covering drug delivery and manufacturing technologies, peptide research and development expertise, and proprietary know-how. Our core Peptelligence(TM) assets include proprietary oral and nasal peptide drug delivery technologies, and proprietary, high-yield, scalable and reproducible recombinant manufacturing technologies.
We are focusing our Unigene Therapeutics pipeline on metabolic and inflammatory diseases with significant unmet medical and socioeconomic needs. We also intend to focus our Unigene Biotechnologies business unit on generating near-term fee-for-service revenues and longer-term milestone payments and royalties by customizing delivery and manufacturing solutions for novel therapeutic peptides.
Unigene’s technologies have extensive clinical and partner validation. The Company’s first product to market, Fortical(r), a nasal calcitonin product, received FDA approval in 2005 and is marketed by Upsher-Smith for the treatment of postmenopausal osteoporosis. Pivotal clinical programs include an oral calcitonin licensed to Tarsa Therapeutics having demonstrated that OSTORA achieved all of the efficacy endpoints in the Phase 3 trial and indicated that the safety profile of OSTORA did not substantially differ from nasal calcitonin or placebo. Other validating relationships include an oral parathyroid hormone currently in Phase 2 with GlaxoSmithKline with top-line results expected before year end. In addition, Unigene has a manufacturing license agreement with Novartis, which is completing 3 Phase 3 studies of oral calcitonin for the treatment of osteoporosis and osteoarthritis.
Unigene is committed to realizing the potential of its proprietary technology assets and the Company’s advanced and broad pipeline of novel peptides focused on metabolic and inflammatory diseases.
