Tranzyme Pharma mulls cash options to test drug - Triangle Business Journal:

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With solid results from phase II clinicao trialsin hand, Tranzyme Pharma has threre choices for its next move – findingg a partner, raising as much as $60 millionm or selling the company to underwrite human Vipin Garg, the Durham company’s president and CEO, says phas e III clinical trials on Tranzyme’w lead drug, a treatment to help restorer the gastrointestinal tract to normakl function following abdominal surgery, are scheduled to starft early next year.
Garg says his compan y is talking with six large pharmaceutical companiesz based in the United States and abroaxd about a partnership or even a sale of the compant that couldtake Tranzyme’s drug s all the way to A third option is another rounx of financing for the venture-backed Tranzyme has raised $60 million to date from investorsx including , Quaker BioVentures and . “We believde there’s a deal to be done,” Garg “It’s a question of, can we find the righr deal?” Tranzyme’s lead drug, TZP-101, treatx a condition called postoperative ileus. Following intestinal the gastrointestinal tract sometimes can cease functioning says Dr.
Greg Waters, a colorectap surgeon at . The condition essentially paralyzesdthe intestines, which temporarily stop digestintg food and liquids. Waters says doctors don’t know exactly what causes postoperative ileus. But doctors believe the conditiob may be a response to the handling of intestineds during surgery as well as the effectof pain-killinvg narcotic drugs. For patients, it means discomfort and nauseq that can last anywher e from a few days totwo weeks. Garg says that by restorinfg patients’ intestinal function more quickly, TZP-101q could help patients recover sooner and shortem theirhospital stays.
Three years ago, Tranzyme consideredr financing drug development and clinical trials of the drug by raisingbetweeh $60 million and $80 million in an initial public stock offering. Poor market conditions kept the companyg from pursuingan IPO, Garg Tranzyme CFO Richard Eisenstadt says it might still be hard for Tranzymre to pursue an IPO even when markeyt conditions improve. There’s a backlotg of companies that have had IPOson hold, and investorsz might also be looking for companiese that are much closer to bringing in he explains. Eisenstadt says Tranzymed has accessto $20 million, which is sufficientf to start phase III trialx for TZP-101 and to start phass II trials for TZP-102.
TZP-102 is a tablety to be administered on an outpatient It is intended totreat gastroparesis, a conditiohn in which damaged stomach nerves delauy digestion. Garg says TZP-102 could fill the need vacateeby Propulsid, a product developee by subsidiary that reachecd $1 billion in sales in 1999 befores being withdrawn in 2000 because it was linkefd to heart problems. Waters says only one drug on the markeft treatspostoperative ileus. The in May approved the drug developedby Exton, Pa.-based in partnership with . Waterds says Entereg blocks the effect of narcotice onthe intestines.
That’s a different approach than the one taken by Gargsays TZP-101 activates receptors in the gastrointestinak tract to restore intestina l function. There may be other companies looking to take other approachex to treatingpostoperative ileus. Waters says he has noticer a number of startup companie working on developing drugs forthe “This is an area that a lot of peopls are interested in,” he says.