Intarcia’s Kurt Graves Named an EY Entrepreneur Of The Year® 2015
Boston, MA – June 5, 2015 – Intarcia Therapeutics, Inc. today announced that Kurt Graves, Chairman, President and CEO of Intarcia, has been named an EY Entrepreneur Of The Year® 2015 in New England. The award recognizes top executives from a variety of industries such as technology, biotechnology, manufacturing, services and real estate across the globe who demonstrate excellence and extraordinary success in such areas as innovation, financial performance and personal commitment to their businesses and communities. Award winners were announced at a special gala event last night at the Boston Marriott Copley Place.
Mr. Graves, 47, was brought into the company in 2010 to provide a fresh vision and new direction for the company. Intarcia’s vision and core strategies focus on bringing disruptively innovative products that hold the potential to change and reshape the current standards of care in some of the world’s largest disease areas and pharmaceutical markets. This is made possible through two innovative technology platforms: first, the ability to stabilize therapeutic proteins, peptides and antibody fragments at body temperatures for years, and second, a novel osmotic mini-pump technology that delivers the stabilized medicines just once-yearly in a smooth and continuous manner.
Under Mr. Graves’ leadership, and with the support of the full Intarcia team, the company has:
• Advanced its lead investigational therapy, ITCA 650, successfully through two of four Phase 3 clinical trials, with the others completing soon, and an anticipated filing in 2016
• Raised well over $1 billion in creative and record-breaking private debt, royalty and equity financings combined with initial ex-U.S. partnership upfront payments
• Completed an ex-U.S. partnership with Servier valued at more than $1 billion plus significant potential royalties outside the U.S.
• Completed licensing deals to build the pipeline in diabetes, inflammatory disease and other metabolic disorders
• Created a passionate and entrepreneurial culture in which leaders and employees drive to innovate for patients, payers and providers and live the core values in all their interactions
“I am deeply honored to have been chosen as an EY Entrepreneur Of The Year,” said Mr. Graves. “In our industry I believe entrepreneurialism relates to your core purpose and a deep desire to want to achieve life changing progress for patients and shaping disruptively innovative products that address some of the biggest unmet medical needs people face around the world. Our work on opening up a totally new category of once-yearly medicines in major chronic diseases has been an exciting yet humbling experience for me. We’ve got amazing talent within our Company, and we also have an incredible Board, top-tier investors, leading partners and deep engagement of the diabetes community who we hope to help serve. At Intarcia, our aim is to create tremendous value by one central theme over time: Having the very best people who stay laser focused on the innovation for patients and the world-class execution needed to bring important new medicines to market – medicines with the potential to overturn conventional wisdom and engrained standards of care, medicines that just might save and improve millions of lives. The more we stay focused on this, measuring our primary success by the number and extent of patient lives we improve with our medicines, the more the rest of our business results will follow. I appreciate this recognition, and plan to continue to earn it – we are just getting started.”
Now in its 29th year, EY has recognized business leaders in more than 145 cities in more than 60 countries throughout the world. Regional award winners are eligible for consideration for the EY Entrepreneur Of The Year National program. Award winners in several national categories, as well as the EY Entrepreneur Of The Year National Overall Award winner, will be announced at the annual awards gala in Palm Springs, California, on November 14, 2015. The awards are the culminating event of the EY Strategic Growth Forum®, the nation’s most prestigious gathering of high-growth, market-leading companies.
About Intarcia Therapeutics, Inc.
Intarcia Therapeutics, Inc. is an independent, privately held, biopharmaceutical company developing therapies to enhance treatment outcomes by optimizing and improving the efficacy, continuous administration and tolerability of drug therapies. Delivering medicines just once or twice yearly has the potential to ensure improved patient adherence and compliance, which is otherwise difficult to achieve in most chronic diseases. Intarcia’s drug development expertise and competitive edge are demonstrated by its abilities to stabilize proteins and peptides at above-body temperature and to deliver them in a constant and consistent manner via Intarcia’s proprietary technology platform. Intarcia is conducting a phase 3 development program for type 2 diabetes that consists of four separate clinical trials, two of which have been completed. Intarcia continues to conduct research and development, utilizing its platform technology, to treat other chronic serious disorders in the field of diabetes, inflammatory disease and other metabolic disorders. For more information on Intarcia, please visit www.intarcia.com
About ITCA 650
ITCA 650 is being developed for the treatment of type 2 diabetes, combining Intarcia’s proprietary technology platform involving a matchstick-size, miniature osmotic pump that is placed sub-dermally to provide continuous and consistent drug therapy, and the company’s proprietary formulation technology, which maintains stability of therapeutic proteins and peptides at human body temperatures for extended periods of time. Exenatide, the active agent in ITCA 650, is a glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonist currently marketed globally as twice-daily and once-weekly self-injection therapies for type 2 diabetes. If approved, ITCA 650 would represent the first injection-free GLP-1 therapy capable of delivering up to a full year of treatment from a single device placement. ITCA 650 is currently in a global phase 3 clinical trial program called FREEDOM.
Intarcia and its logo are registered trademarks of Intarcia Therapeutics, Inc.
About EY Entrepreneur Of The Year®
EY Entrepreneur Of The Year is the world’s most prestigious business award for entrepreneurs. The unique award makes a difference through the way it encourages entrepreneurial activity among those with potential and recognizes the contribution of people who inspire others with their vision, leadership and achievement. As the first and only truly global award of its kind, Entrepreneur Of The Year celebrates those who are building and leading successful, growing and dynamic businesses, recognizing them through regional, national and global awards programs in more than 145 cities in more than 60 countries.
Media Contacts
Intarcia Therapeutics, Inc.
James Ahlers
james.ahlers @intarcia.com
(510) 782-7800 (office)
Wholepoint Communications
Jen LaVin
jen.lavin @wholepoint.com
(617) 718-0276 (office)
(781) 718-7037 (cell)