Arecor Therapeutics PLC (AIM:AREC) CEO Sarah Howell talked with Proactive about the company’s strong progress across its proprietary diabetes and obesity pipeline and partnerships. The discussion followed the release of Arecor Therapeutics’ full-year results, where Howell detailed advances in AT278 — a highly concentrated, ultra-rapid acting insulin shown to be effective in patients with Type 2 diabetes and high BMI.
AT278, according to Howell, delivers faster insulin onset and superior glucose control compared to current market alternatives. “We got more insulin on board faster,” she said, highlighting the product’s pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic advantages. She added that the insulin is particularly suited for use in insulin pump therapies, especially for patients requiring high daily doses — a segment traditionally underserved by existing pump solutions.
Beyond injectables, Arecor has entered the oral peptide delivery space with a new platform targeting enhanced bioavailability, initially focusing on oral GLP-1 for obesity. Howell noted, “We have overcome the first significant challenges of stabilizing the peptide,” using the company’s Arestat technology, with semaglutide development underway to improve upon existing oral GLP-1 drugs like Rybelsus.
The company continues to expand its partner network and revenue-generating collaborations. It expects key data from oral peptide studies and a potential strategic partnership announcement for AT278 during 2025.
Proactive: Sarah, very good to speak with you. You announced your full year results yesterday. What are the key highlights?
Sarah Howell: Yeah, I mean, just as a quick recap, our core is very much focused on transforming patient care by bringing enhanced therapeutics to market that lower patient burden whilst improving their outcomes. And we're very much targeting areas where there is high unmet patient need in high-value markets, either ourselves through our clinical-stage proprietary pipeline within the diabetes and obesity space, or through our partnerships with major pharmaceutical and biotech companies.
Key highlights from our diabetes and obesity proprietary pipeline — first and foremost, we have stellar results from one of our insulin programs, AT278. This is our highly concentrated ultra-rapid acting insulin. We demonstrated in type 2 diabetes patients with high BMI — overweight or obese patients, the most difficult to control in terms of blood glucose — that we had a faster-acting insulin and better glucose-lowering profile compared to the best available options. That was fantastic.
We're also progressing in striking a strategic partnership deal for AT278 for its further development and commercialization. We see the greatest benefit for patients in the insulin pump setting, especially in automated insulin delivery systems. So, great progress across our insulin portfolio.
We've also embarked into a new area — developing a platform technology for the oral delivery of peptides, starting with oral GLP-1 in the obesity space. We've already overcome the first significant challenge — stabilizing the peptide within our novel lipid oral delivery matrix — and are now focused on enhancing bioavailability through a series of non-clinical studies.
We continue to partner with major pharma and biotech companies. New partnerships have been formed, and the first products incorporating our Arestat technology are now on the market. We’re seeing growing royalty streams from a global, royalty-bearing license agreement. So, really great progress across 2024, and that's continuing into 2025.
Proactive: You mentioned trial success with AT278. What makes this product significant in the diabetes research field today?
Sarah Howell: AT278 is highly concentrated — five times the standard concentration of insulin — and it's ultra-rapid acting. It’s especially needed for people who require high daily insulin doses, like those on insulin pump therapy. These patients often can't get enough insulin onboard with current pumps to last the typical three-day wear time.
There’s real-world data showing people have better outcomes with insulin pumps. There's industry and patient demand for longer-wear, smaller pumps — but for that, we need a highly concentrated, rapid-acting insulin. We’re the only company to achieve this profile. Normally, concentrating insulin slows it down, but we’ve overcome this using our Arestat technology. So we’re really catalyzing the next innovation leap in insulin pump use.
Proactive: There’s a huge amount of interest in the GLP-1 class of drugs. Can you tell us more about your work in this field?
Sarah Howell: At a high level, we’re developing an oral delivery platform for peptides with enhanced bioavailability. Peptides are important in treating chronic diseases. There are over 800 peptides in development, with over 100 in the diabetes and obesity space, particularly GLP-1s.
But only two peptides are currently on the market in oral form due to their low bioavailability. One is Rybelsus from Novo Nordisk, which has less than 1% bioavailability. Despite this, it generated $3.40 billion in 2024 sales.
We’re using semaglutide — the same active ingredient — to develop an oral GLP-1 with enhanced bioavailability, aiming for over 1%. That would be commercially attractive and beneficial to patients. If we succeed here, we can apply this technology to the broader peptide class. We'll be conducting pharmacokinetic studies in the second half of this year. Stabilising the peptide was a major challenge, and we've already achieved that.
Proactive: As 2025 progresses, what should we be looking out for?
Sarah Howell: We’ll continue developing our proprietary pipeline, especially in diabetes and obesity. Watch for a strategic partnering announcement for AT278. In oral peptide delivery, we’ll be generating non-clinical PK data that validate our platform. We also expect to enter further revenue-generating partnerships with pharma and biotech. 2025 brings many opportunities for value creation for our business and our shareholders.
Proactive: We’ll look forward to that. Sarah, thank you very much for taking the time to speak with us today.