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Amryt Pharma excited by orphan diseases market

Published: 10:50 09 Jun 2016 BST

Young bou and pets
Epidermolysis bullosa is a genetic skin disorder that affects young children for which there is currently no treatment.

Amryt Pharma PLC (LON:AMYT), which listed on Aim through a reverse takeover of Fastnet Equity, ended May with €12.6mln in cash.

Results for the nine months to the end of 2015 – the company is in the process of changing its year-end – were largely irrelevant, covering the period when the company was exiting from the oil and gas sector.

Revenues were nil, and the loss before tax narrowed to €1.31mln from €1.87mln in the 12 months to 31 March, 2015.

The company is now focused on building and making money from a pipeline of drug candidates targeted at treating so-called orphan diseases – serious diseases that are not widespread enough to interest the big drugs companies.

Currently there are 7,000 orphan diseases, which affect one in 10 of the global population.  Drugs with orphan designation are usually fast-tracked to market.  The lower phase III trial costs, smaller trial sizes, higher price point and long term marketing exclusivity granted in both the EU and US makes it a uniquely attractive market segment, Amryt believes.

The company’s lead product, Episalvan, is a treatment for one such orphan disease: epidermolysis bullosa. It is a genetic skin disorder that affects young children for which there is currently no treatment.

"The reverse takeover of Fastnet Equity PLC was an important strategic milestone in realising the company's vision of becoming a significant player in the underserved orphan disease market. Amryt is focused on building a diversified portfolio of commercially attractive, propriety new drugs targeting best in class performance to help address some of these rare and debilitating illnesses for which there are currently no available treatments," said Harry Stratford, the non-executive chairman of Amryt.

"We are very excited by the prospects of our lead product Episalvan, a potential treatment for a rare, debilitating hereditary skin disorder called Epidermolysis Bullosa (EB), where we expect to initiate a pivotal study around the year end. We believe the product has been meaningfully de-risked following its European approval earlier this year for the treatment of Partial Thickness Wounds (PTWs)," Stratford said.

 

 

 

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