After Ending Cancer Drug Program, Halozyme Predicts Profits in 2020
Summary
The San Diego-based company’s technology, called Enhanze, allows some drugs traditionally given intravenously over hours to be delivered instead by subcutaneous injection in minutes. “There was a lot of passion in the company for this mission for pancreatic cancer patients, so there was a lot of disappointment that it didn’t work, but we’d been very clear on the business strategy so we were able to move forward to do what we need to do, which is focus on what we do great, and that’s support our Enhanze partners,” CEO Helen Torley said in an interview at the JP Morgan Healthcare Confererence in San Francisco. Torley says the company is confident it will ink deals with additional partners, and that Halozyme remains in “active discussion” with pharmas and biotechs considering teaming up on new collaborations that leverage Enhanze. Three products developed using Enhanze are on the market today: two Roche oncology medicines and a treatment from Baxalta, now a part of Takeda Pharmaceutical (NYSE: TAK), for adults with adult patients with primary immunodeficiency diseases, disorders in which part of the immune system is missing or not working correctly. At the conference Torley called the November restructuring, which involved 155 layoffs, “virtually complete.” Among those leaving the company are its general counsel, Harry Leonhardt; chief medical officer, Dimitrios Chondros; and chief commercial officer, Ben Hickey (who has since landed at Mirati Therapeutics (NASDAQ: MRTX).
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