Ferring collaborates with ICF on development of a potential new treatment for anal fissures with a focus on improving quality of care for IBD patients

Saint-Prex, Switzerland –15 March 2017 –

Ferring Pharmaceuticals and Brazil-based Instituto de Ciências Farmacêuticas (ICF) today announced a research collaboration aimed at developing a mucoadhesive rectal delivery system to treat anal fissures and to improve quality of care for patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).

Anal fissures are a common complication of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). They can represent a challenging problem for patients with IBD but have been overlooked, with current treatments not sufficient to give long-lasting pain relief and promote healing.¹

“Ferring is committed to enhancing the quality of life and quality of care of IBD patients through innovative scientific research,” said Alan Harris, Senior Vice President R&D Executive Office, Ferring Pharmaceuticals. “This collaboration is focused on meeting a number of unmet needs – from alleviating the pain of anal fissures, to promoting faster healing, increasing patient adherence and developing more convenient dosing.”

“Our collaboration also aims to address current unmet needs of physicians,” said Leonardo Teixeira, CEO, ICF. “We want to develop a ready-to-use and patient-compliant delivery system with mucoadhesive properties, to provide doctors with an alternative to current topical treatments and surgical options.”

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About Anal Fissure

Anal fissure is a tear in the lining of the lower rectum (anal canal) that causes pain during bowel movements. It is associated with constipation (due to the passage of bulky and hard stools), frequent bowel movement and diarrhoea, trauma in the anal area, diet poor in fibres and high in fat and fried foods, and in inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) such as ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease. One cause of fissures is increased tension (called resting pressure) and spasm in the internal anal sphincter. Current treatments are not sufficient enough to give long-lasting pain relief and promote healing.

About Ferring Pharmaceuticals

Headquartered in Switzerland, Ferring Pharmaceuticals is a research-driven, specialty biopharmaceutical group active in global markets. The company identifies, develops and markets innovative products in the areas of reproductive health, urology, gastroenterology, endocrinology and orthopaedics. Ferring has its own operating subsidiaries in nearly 60 countries and markets its products in 110 countries.

To learn more about Ferring or its products please visit www.ferring.com.

About ICF, Instituto de Ciências Farmacêuticas

ICF (Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences) is a Brazil-based company dedicated to research and drug development in many disease areas. Active in over 30 countries, ICF has 15 years of experience and also focuses on Bioequivalence studies (BE) and in vitro analysis. ICF is a notable reference for industries and institutions from several countries.

To learn more about ICF please visit www.icf.com.

For more information, please contact

Ferring Pharmaceuticals
Lindsey Rodger
+41 58 451 40 23
lindsey.rodger@ferring.com

Instituto de Ciências Farmacêuticas 
Laura Rezeck
+55 62 3240 8700
laura.rezeck@icf.com.br

References

1. D’Ugo S, Stasi E, Gaspari AL, Sileri P. Hemorrhoids and anal fissures in inflammatory bowel disease. Minerva Gastroenterol Dietol. 2015 Dec;61(4):223-33. PubMed.

Ferring acquires ex-U.S. assets and rights for Vitaros® (alprostadil cream), Apricus’ on-demand topical cream for erectile dysfunction

Saint-Prex, Switzerland – 09 March 2017 –

Ferring Pharmaceuticals today announced an agreement with Apricus Biosciences, Inc. (Nasdaq:APRI), granting Ferring global assets and rights, excluding the U.S., related to Apricus’ Vitaros® (alprostadil cream). Vitaros is an on-demand topical cream indicated for the treatment of patients with erectile dysfunction.

Ferring is Apricus’ existing commercialisation partner for Vitaros in Latin America and parts of Europe and Asia. Following an agreed handover period, Ferring will be responsible for managing all Vitaros-related activities outside of the U.S. with existing Vitaros commercialisation partners. Apricus will retain its Vitaros rights in the U.S.

“Urology is a key therapeutic area for Ferring,” said Michel Pettigrew, President of the Executive Board and COO, Ferring Pharmaceuticals. “This agreement strengthens our existing portfolio and reinforces Ferring’s commitment to improving the quality of life of patients with a broad range of urological conditions.”

– ENDS –

About Ferring Pharmaceuticals

Headquartered in Saint-Prex, Switzerland, Ferring Pharmaceuticals is a research-driven, specialty biopharmaceutical group active in global markets. The company identifies, develops and markets innovative products in the areas of reproductive health, urology, gastroenterology, endocrinology and orthopedics. Ferring has its own operating subsidiaries in nearly 60 countries and markets its products in 110 countries.

For further information on Ferring or its products, visit www.ferring.com.

*Vitaros® is a registered trademark of NexMed International Limited, and will be assigned to Ferring B.V. worldwide, excluding the United States.  Such trademark is registered in certain countries throughout the world and pending registration in the United States.

For more information, please contact

Ferring Pharmaceuticals
Lindsey Rodger
Tel. +41 58 451 40 23
lindsey.rodger@ferring.com

Ferring Announces Recipients of Innovation Grants Program 2016-2017

Saint-Prex, Switzerland – 15 February 2017 –

Ferring today announced the recipients of the 2016-2017 Ferring Innovation Grants program, an annual initiative of the Ferring Research Institute (FRI) which provides grants of up to $100,000 for early stage research.

The program focuses on novel extracellular drug targets addressable with peptides or proteins within Ferring’s core therapeutic areas: reproductive health, gastroenterology, urology, and endocrinology.

The 2016-2017 awardees and their research subjects are:

Stuart Brierley – Flinders University, Australia; Venom-derived NaV1.1 inhibitors as novel candidates for treating chronic visceral pain associated with IBS

James Deane – Hudson Institute of Medical Research, Australia; Investigating the requirement for Notch and Hedgehog signalling in the endometrial stem/progenitor populations that cause endometriosis

Laurent Derré – Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois, Switzerland;Understanding Siglec-related immunity in bladder cancer

Marie van Dijk – University of Amsterdam, Netherlands; ELABELA as a potential biomarker and therapeutic for pre-eclampsia

Renjie Jin – Vanderbilt University Medical Center, USA; Sensitizing castration-resistant prostate cancer to anti-androgens by targeting gastrin-releasing peptide receptor

Florenta Kullmann – University of Pittsburgh, USA; Artemin: a novel target for treatment of interstitial cystitis/bladder pain syndrome

Mireille Lahoud – Monash University, Australia; The development of Clec12A-ligands as a therapeutic approach to regulate gastrointestinal inflammation

Padma Murthi – Monash University, Australia; Investigating the role of novel peptide receptor as an effective target to improve placental function in preeclampsia

Markus Muttenthaler – The University of Queensland, Australia; Mapping the location and function of oxytocin and vasopressin receptors throughout the gut

Rodrigo Pacheco – Fundación Ciencia & Vida and Universidad Andres Bello, Santiago, Chile; Targeting heteromers formed by G-protein coupled receptors involved in the gut-homing of T-cells in inflammatory bowel diseases

Aritro Sen – The University of Rochester, USA; Regulation of AMH expression by GDF9+BMP15 and FSH during follicular development as a novel therapeutic option

“We look forward to the outcomes of the research being carried out by our grant awardees,” said Keith James, President of FRI and Senior Vice President, Research and Development. “Ferring is committed to stimulating basic research, with the ultimate aim of developing innovative products that improve the lives of patients.”

Applications for the 2017-2018 Ferring Innovation Grants programme will open in spring/summer 2017.

For more information on this year’s program, visit www.ferring-research.com/ferring-grants.

– ENDS –

About Ferring Research Institute Inc

Located in San Diego, California Ferring Research Institute Inc. (FRI) is the global peptide therapeutics research center for Ferring Pharmaceuticals. FRI is committed to building a portfolio of novel, innovative peptide-based drugs and biologicals to address the high unmet medical need for patients in our therapeutic areas of interest.

For more detailed information please visit www.ferring-research.com.

About Ferring Pharmaceuticals

Headquartered in Switzerland, Ferring Pharmaceuticals is a research-driven, specialty biopharmaceutical group active in global markets. The company identifies, develops and markets innovative products in the areas of reproductive health, urology, gastroenterology, endocrinology and orthopaedics. Ferring has its own operating subsidiaries in nearly 60 countries and markets its products in 110 countries.

To learn more about Ferring or its products please visit www.ferring.com.

For more information, please contact

Lindsey Rodger
+41 58 451 40 23
lindsey.rodger@ferring.com

Ferring and Foresee Pharmaceuticals Enter into Exclusive Development and Option Agreement

Saint-Prex, Switzerland –13 February 2017 –

Ferring Pharmaceuticals and Foresee Pharmaceuticals Co., Ltd. (6576.TWO), announced today that the companies have entered into an exclusive worldwide development and option agreement to leverage Foresee’s proprietary and unique Stabilized Injectable Formulation platform (SIF) for the development of long duration, controlled release formulations of a peptide therapeutic.

Under the terms of the agreement, Ferring will fund the development work and, upon completion, Ferring will have the right to exercise its option and enter into a definitive agreement with Foresee. Execution of a definitive agreement would entitle Foresee to additional payments including upfront, milestones and royalties based on net sales of the product(s) commercialized by Ferring.

“We have been impressed with Foresee’s achievements to date and we see value in its SIF platform technology,” said Alan S. Harris, Senior Vice President, R&D Executive Office at Ferring. “The technical barriers Foresee has overcome in developing stable, formulated peptides in solution for controlled release therapy for three and six-month durations of action after a single injection are quite significant, and this gives us much confidence in the potential of the SIF platform applied to complex peptide drug substances. We are enthusiastic about this new collaboration.”

“We are excited about entering into this collaboration with Ferring, a global specialty pharmaceutical company with a long-standing history of innovation in the area of injectable therapeutic peptides and the application of novel formulations and delivery technologies to generate differentiated product profiles,” said Dr. Ben Chien, Chairman and CEO of Foresee. “We are confident that our SIF platform will provide significant value to Ferring’s R&D product portfolio and very much look forward to working with them on this project.”

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About Ferring Pharmaceuticals

Headquartered in Switzerland, Ferring Pharmaceuticals is a research-driven, specialty biopharmaceutical group active in global markets. The company identifies, develops and markets innovative products in the areas of reproductive health, urology, gastroenterology, endocrinology and orthopaedics. Ferring has its own operating subsidiaries in nearly 60 countries and markets its products in 110 countries.

To learn more about Ferring or its products please visit www.ferring.com.

About Foresee Pharmaceuticals

Foresee is a Taiwan and US-based biopharmaceutical company listed on the Taipei Exchange. Foresee’s R&D efforts are focused in two key areas, namely its unique stabilized injectable formulation (SIF) depot delivery platform and derived drug products targeting large specialty markets, and its transformative early stage preclinical and clinical NCE programs targeting inflammatory & fibrotic diseases and other disease areas with high unmet needs. Foresee has a product portfolio including late stage and early stage programs such as FP-001, a stable, premixed, prefilled version of leuprolide depot for injection, which has recently successfully completed a global Phase III Registration Study and FP-025, a highly selective oral MMP-12 inhibitor targeting inflammatory and fibrotic diseases, which is currently completing a Phase 1 study.

For more information, please contact

Ferring Pharmaceuticals
Lindsey Rodger
+41 58 451 40 23
lindsey.rodger@ferring.com

Foresee Pharmaceuticals
Mathieu Boudreau, Ph.D.
+1 514 806 9036
mathieu.boudreau@foreseepharma.com

Ferring Pharmaceuticals and Enteris BioPharma Enter License Agreement to Develop an Oral Formulation of a Peptide-based Injectable Therapeutic

Saint-Prex, Switzerland – 30 January 2017 –

Ferring Pharmaceuticals and Enteris BioPharma, Inc. announced today that the companies have entered into a license agreement and initiated an early development agreement to leverage Enteris’ proprietary and patented oral peptide and small molecule delivery platform, Peptelligence™, to engineer an oral formulation of a peptide-based injectable therapeutic developed by Ferring.

Under the terms of the agreement, Enteris BioPharma will license to Ferring its oral drug delivery technologies, as well as provide clinical trial finished product, and will receive milestones and royalties based on net sales of the developed product.

The licensing agreement with Ferring Pharmaceuticals highlights Enteris BioPharma’s successful “Feasibility-to-Licensing” strategy involving Peptelligence™, its peptide and small molecule oral drug delivery platform. The technology is currently the subject of several active external development programs and has proven effective over the last decade to enable the safe delivery of peptide-based therapeutics and other molecules with low oral bioavailability.

Joel Tune, Chief Executive Officer and Executive Chairman of Enteris BioPharma, remarked, “Our agreement with Ferring Pharmaceuticals exemplifies the opportunity our Peptelligence platform offers in enhancing the market potential of peptide-based therapeutics by enabling the oral delivery of medications that must otherwise be administered by injection. We are excited to work with an industry leader like Ferring Pharmaceuticals to advance the development of an oral peptide-based therapeutic.”

Alan Harris, Senior Vice President, R&D Executive Office of Ferring Pharmaceuticals, remarked, “The ability to deliver oral peptides offers Ferring the opportunity to provide additional therapeutic choices to patients. We are impressed with Enteris’ proprietary oral delivery technology and look forward to working with them to advance this development program.”

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About Ferring Pharmaceuticals

Headquartered in Switzerland, Ferring Pharmaceuticals is a research-driven, specialty biopharmaceutical group active in global markets. The company identifies, develops and markets innovative products in the areas of reproductive health, urology, gastroenterology, endocrinology and orthopaedics. Ferring has its own operating subsidiaries in nearly 60 countries and markets its products in 110 countries.

To learn more about Ferring or its products please visit www.ferring.com.

About Enteris BioPharma

Enteris BioPharma, Inc. is a privately held, New Jersey-based biotechnology company offering innovative formulation solutions built around its proprietary drug delivery technologies. The Company’s proprietary oral delivery technology – Peptelligence™ – has been the subject of numerous feasibility studies and active development programs, several of which are in late stage clinical development. Additionally, Enteris BioPharma has built and is advancing an internal product pipeline of oral tablet reformulations of drug products that address significant treatment opportunities for which there is no oral delivery option. Enteris BioPharma’s most advanced internal product candidate, Ovarest™ (oral leuprolide tablet), is a Phase 2a-ready oral peptide, being developed for the treatment of endometriosis.

For more information on Enteris BioPharma and its proprietary oral delivery technology and contract manufacturing capabilities, please visit http://www.EnterisBioPharma.com

For more information, please contact

Ferring Pharmaceuticals
Lindsey Rodger
+41 58 451 40 23
lindsey.rodger@ferring.com

Enteris BioPharma
Brian Zietsman
President & CFO
+1 973 453 3527

Enteris Media Relations
Jason Rando / Amy Wheeler
Tiberend Strategic Advisors, Inc.
+1 212 827 0020
jrando@tiberend.com
awheeler@tiberend.com

Ferring partners with Intralytix to develop bacteriophage treatments for conditions associated with the microbiome and drug-resistant bacteria

Saint-Prex, Switzerland – 9 January 2017 –

Ferring Pharmaceuticals is partnering with Intralytix, Inc to develop and commercialise bacteriophage-based treatments for conditions associated with the presence of pathogenic bacteria or dysbiosis of the microbiome.

The human body is host to trillions of microbes, bacteria, virus and fungi. This vast and complex microbial community is known as the microbiota. The collective name for all of the genes in the microbiota is the microbiome.

Bacteriophages are a normal part of the microbiota. These virus-like organisms have evolved naturally to target and destroy specific bacteria. They have significant potential compared to antibiotics to treat bacterial infections without affecting beneficial bacteria, such as the normal gut flora, to fine-tune the human microbiome and to address the growing issue of antibiotic resistance.

“Rapidly evolving science is uncovering the central role that the microbiome plays in human health and disease,” said Per Falk, Executive Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer, Ferring Pharmaceuticals. “Ferring is committed to advancing microbiome research in order to develop innovative new ways to diagnose, treat and prevent disease, and to address urgent unmet needs.”

Bacterial resistance to antibiotics is an increasingly serious threat to global public health¹ and a key focus of the collaboration will be on developing treatments for multi-drug resistant bacteria.

“Phage-based anti-bacterial treatments are rapidly emerging as a safe, effective and natural way to help maintain healthy microbiota,” said Alexander Sulakvelidze, Vice President for Research and Development and Chief Scientific Officer of Intralytix. “We are delighted to be expanding our collaboration with Ferring. Together, we can enhance product development, and bring benefits to patients more quickly.”

Ferring announced an initial collaboration withIntralytix on a bacteriophage-based therapy for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) in July 2015. By broadening the collaboration, Ferring and Intralytix will now jointly investigate bacteriophage-based drugs to regulate the microbiome of the female reproductive tract, oral cavity, and skin, in addition to the gut.

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About the Microbiota

The human body is host to trillions of microbes, bacteria, virus and fungi. This vast and complex microbial community is known as the microbiota. The microbiota can be considered a “new organ” which actually constitutes 2 kg of the body. An estimated 80 % of its components have not yet been cultivated.

About the Microbiome

Each of the different microorganisms in the microbiota has its own unique set of genes. The collective name for all of the genes in the microbiotais themicrobiome.Rapidly evolving science has uncovered a central role of the microbiome in human health and disease.

About Bacteriophages

Bacteriophage literally means ‘bacteria-eater’, taken from the Greek ‘phagein’ meaning “to eat”. Bacteriophages are the most abundant microorganisms on earth and have evolved naturally to target and destroy specific bacteria.  They are currently being investigated as a possible therapy against multi-drug-resistant strains of many bacteria.

About Ferring Pharmaceuticals

Headquartered in Switzerland, Ferring Pharmaceuticals is a research-driven, specialty biopharmaceutical group active in global markets. The company identifies, develops and markets innovative products in the areas of reproductive health, urology, gastroenterology, endocrinology and orthopaedics. Ferring has its own operating subsidiaries in nearly 60 countries and markets its products in 110 countries.

To learn more about Ferring or its products please visit www.ferring.com.

About Intralytix, Inc.

Intralytix, Inc. is a privately-held company headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland.  The company is the world’s leader in bacteriophage technology, and was the first company in the world to receive FDA-approval for a phage-based product for food safety applications. Intralytix currently has the largest in the world portfolio of phage-based products on commercial markets.  The company holds several bacteriophage technology-related patents, including two U.S. patents (and additional patents pending) on the use of bacteriophages for fine tuning human or animal microbiome by using phage to reduce or eliminate bacterial colonization (US 7,459,272 B2 and US 8,003,323 B2).

To learn more about Intralytix, Inc. or its products please visit www.intralytix.com

For more information, please contact

Ferring Pharmaceuticals
Lindsey Rodger
+41 58 451 40 23
lindsey.rodger@ferring.com

Intralytix
Alexander Sulakvelidze
+1 410 625 2533
asulakvelidze@intralytix.com

References

1. WHO Antimicrobial Fact sheet 2016: http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs194/en/