AMRYT AND SWIXX SIGN DISTRIBUTION DEAL FOR MYALEPTA ACROSS 17 JURISDICTIONS IN CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE (“CEE”)


June 3, 2020
AIM: AMYT
Euronext Growth: AYP

AMRYT PHARMA PLC

(“Amryt” or the “Company”)

AMRYT AND SWIXX SIGN DISTRIBUTION DEAL FOR MYALEPTA ACROSS 17 JURISDICTIONS IN CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE (“CEE”)

Amryt, a global, commercial-stage biopharmaceutical company dedicated to developing and commercializing novel therapeutics to treat patients suffering from serious and life-threatening rare diseases, today announces the signing of a distribution agreement with Swixx BioPharma AG (“Swixx”) of Baar, Switzerland. 

Under the agreement, Amryt has appointed Swixx as exclusive distributor of  Myalepta® (metreleptin) in the EU territories of Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia. In addition, Swixx will distribute Myalepta® for Amryt in the West Balkan countries of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia.  These represent new territories for the Group providing scope to further accelerate revenue growth, augmenting the sales of Myalepta® already being generated through our existing salesforce in the EU.

Myalepta® was approved by the European Medicines Agency (“EMA”) in July 2018 as a treatment, in conjunction with diet, to treat the complications of leptin deficiency in patients with generalised and partial lipodystrophy.

Joe Wiley, CEO of Amryt Pharma, commented: “Metreleptin is currently the most significant driver of revenue growth for Amryt with sales growing 49% in Q1 2020 versus the same period in 2019. We are pleased to partner with Swixx, now the largest and fastest-growing dedicated agent for biopharma companies in CEE, as our distributor across these seventeen jurisdictions. Our partnership with Swixx will allow us to provide metreleptin to lipodystrophy patients in these new territories. We believe that the product is still relatively early in its growth trajectory and that this agreement will significantly accelerate our launch of metreleptin across the EMEA.”

Enquiries:                                                                                                                    

Amryt Pharma plc+353 (1) 518 0200
Joe Wiley, CEO

Rory Nealon, CFO/COO
 
 

Shore Capital
+44 (0) 20 7408 4090
NOMAD and Joint Broker 
Edward Mansfield, Daniel Bush, John More

 
 
 

 

Stifel
 

 

+44 (0) 20 7710 7600
Joint Broker 
Jonathan Senior, Ben Maddison 
  
Davy+353 (1) 679 6363
ESM Adviser and Joint Broker 
John Frain, Daragh O’Reilly 
 

Consilium Strategic Communications
+44 (0) 20 3709 5700
Amber Fennell, Matthew Neal, Ashley Tapp 
 

LifeSci Advisors, LLC
+1 (212) 915 2564
Tim McCarthy 

About Amryt

Amryt is a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing and delivering innovative new treatments to help improve the lives of patients with rare and orphan diseases. Amryt comprises a strong and growing portfolio of commercial and development assets.

Amryt’s commercial business comprises two orphan disease products.

Juxtapid®/ Lojuxta® (lomitapide) is approved as an adjunct to a low-fat diet and other lipid-lowering medicinal products for adults with the rare cholesterol disorder, Homozygous Familial Hypercholesterolaemia ("HoFH") in the US, Canada, Columbia, Argentina and Japan (under the trade name Juxtapid®) and in the EU (under the trade name Lojuxta®). HoFH is a rare genetic disorder which impairs the body's ability to remove low density lipoprotein ("LDL") cholesterol ("bad" cholesterol) from the blood, typically leading to abnormally high blood LDL cholesterol levels in the body from before birth - often ten times more than people without HoFH - and subsequent aggressive and premature cardiovascular disease.

Myalept® / Myalepta® (metreleptin) is approved in the US (under the trade name Myalept®) as an adjunct to diet as replacement therapy to treat the complications of leptin deficiency in patients with congenital or acquired generalized lipodystrophy (GL) and in the EU (under the trade name Myalepta®) for the treatment of leptin deficiency in patients with congenital or acquired GL in adults and children two years of age and above and familial or acquired partial lipodystrophy (PL) in adults and children 12 years of age and above for whom standard treatments have failed to achieve adequate metabolic control. Metreleptin is also approved for lipodystrophy in Japan. Generalised and partial lipodystrophy are rare disorders characterised by loss or lack of adipose tissue resulting in the deficiency of the hormone leptin, produced by fat cells and are associated with severe metabolic abnormalities including severe insulin resistance, diabetes, hypertriglyceridemia and fatty liver disease.

Amryt's lead development candidate, FILSUVEZ® is a potential treatment for the cutaneous manifestations of Epidermolysis Bullosa ("EB"), a rare and distressing genetic skin disorder affecting young children and adults for which there is currently no approved treatment. FILSUVEZ® has been granted Rare Pediatric Disease Designation and has also received a Fast Track Designation from the FDA. The European and US market opportunity for EB is estimated by the Company to be in excess of $1.0 billion.

In March 2018, Amryt in-licenced a pre-clinical gene-therapy platform technology, AP103, which offers a potential treatment for patients with Recessive Dystrophic Epidermolysis Bullosa, a subset of EB, and is also potentially relevant to other genetic disorders. 

For more information on Amryt, including products, please visit www.amrytpharma.com.

This announcement contains inside information for the purposes of article 7 of the Market Abuse Regulation (EU) 596/2014.

About Swixx BioPharma AG

Swixx operates fully owned subsidiaries across Central and Eastern Europe, offering coverage from Moscow to Prague and from Tallinn to Sofia.  With 500 employees and sales exceeding €200m in 2020, Swixx is now the largest and fastest-growing dedicated agent for biopharma and self-medication innovative companies in CEE. The company has gathered outstanding rare disease, oncology-haematology, specialty and self-medication talent under one roof.

Forward-Looking Statements
Statements in this announcement with respect to Amryt's business, strategies, timing for completion of and announcing results from the EASE study, the potential impact of closing enrollment in the EASE study, as well as other statements that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements involving risks and uncertainties which could cause the actual results to differ materially from such statements. Statements containing the words "expect", "anticipate", "intends", "plan", "estimate", "aim", "forecast", "project" and similar expressions (or their negative) identify certain of these forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements in this announcement are based on numerous assumptions and Amryt's present and future business strategies and the environment in which Amryt expects to operate in the future. Forward-looking statements involve inherent known and unknown risks, uncertainties and contingencies because they relate to events and depend on circumstances that may or may not occur in the future and may cause the actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. These statements are not guarantees of future performance or the ability to identify and consummate investments. Many of these risks and uncertainties relate to factors that are beyond each of Amryt's ability to control or estimate precisely, such as future market conditions, the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, currency fluctuations, the behaviour of other market participants, the outcome of clinical trials, the actions of regulators and other factors such as Amryt's ability to obtain financing, changes in the political, social and regulatory framework in which Amryt operates or in economic, technological or consumer trends or conditions. Past performance should not be taken as an indication or guarantee of future results, and no representation or warranty, express or implied, is made regarding future performance. No person is under any obligation to update or keep current the information contained in this announcement or to provide the recipient of it with access to any additional relevant information that may arise in connection with it. Such forward-looking statements reflect the Company’s current beliefs and assumptions and are based on information currently available to management.