Speaker 1: Now on Bloomberg Radio, we take stock of healthcare. The
Speaker 1: issue of drug pricing has been at the forefront, certainly
Speaker 1: in the political realm for the last few months. We're
Speaker 1: living in a very special time in the history of
Speaker 1: the pharmaceutical industry. Let me three percent of all biotechts
Speaker 1: that start actually get a drug approved. It's a very
Speaker 1: hard thing to do. Bloomberg taking stop healthcare and focus
Speaker 1: on Bloomberg Radio. Yes, healthcare in focus and diabetes in focus.
Speaker 1: Turning our attention now to those people who at some
Speaker 1: point may have to inject themselves up to twenty eight
Speaker 1: times a week with insulin. Here to tell us more
Speaker 1: about some of the alternatives is John Timberlake. He is
Speaker 1: the president and the chief executive of Valeritas, and he
Speaker 1: joins me now. John, thank you very much for being here.
Speaker 1: Thank you, thanks for having me. Well, you know, just
Speaker 1: before we get into the details of some of the
Speaker 1: v GO system, maybe just tell people a little bit
Speaker 1: about your background, because you've been involved in diabetes even
Speaker 1: before you came to Valeritas in two thousand six. That's correct.
Speaker 1: I have spent the last twenty five years focused in
Speaker 1: the air diabetes. I spent fifteen years within the company
Speaker 1: pharmaceutical called Santa Fee responsible for um the diabetes portfolio
Speaker 1: from the phase one up through and on the market.
Speaker 1: And I came to Valaritas ten years ago because I
Speaker 1: saw this technology as something really could net an unmet
Speaker 1: need for the Type two patient with diabetes. All right,
Speaker 1: let's talk about this technology. This is the v GO
Speaker 1: technology and it is wearable on the skin and it's
Speaker 1: just about two inches long. What it actually does it do?
Speaker 1: So the Vego is a very simple, easy to use product.
Speaker 1: It is a wearable patch that is um completely mechanical.
Speaker 1: There's no electronics, there's no batteries. The patient can put
Speaker 1: this on their on their body, leave the house and
Speaker 1: have all the ins and they need for the day.
Speaker 1: So it delivers a constant flow of insulin throughout twenty
Speaker 1: four hours. And then when the patient eats, they can
Speaker 1: very discreetly and easily give themselves additional insulin around meal
Speaker 1: times by simply clicking buttons on the device through their clothing.
Speaker 1: So they could be sitting at a restaurant or the cafeteria.
Speaker 1: And there's a really big social stigma with people taking
Speaker 1: type or Type two is taken insulin in public because
Speaker 1: society has kind of blamed them for having type two diabetes. Well,
Speaker 1: tell people a little bit more about it, like what
Speaker 1: is it that causes type two diabetes and what is
Speaker 1: the addressable market. So diabetes, type two diabetes is really
Speaker 1: as a multi factory disease. It's both the combination the
Speaker 1: body not using the instant the body can make and
Speaker 1: the body not making enough insulin. So it's a very large,
Speaker 1: unfortunate opportunity because there's so many people who have type
Speaker 1: two diabetes. In the United States alone, there were twenty
Speaker 1: two million people who have diabetes, six million of them
Speaker 1: are type twos. Are taking insulint through injections of these
Speaker 1: patients do not reach the reach their seem to control.
Speaker 1: And so that's a huge unmet need of more and
Speaker 1: happening in patients who could benefit from a product like
Speaker 1: the Vego. The Food and Drug Administration has given approval
Speaker 1: for Vigo. Correct, that's correct. The Vego is commercial rights.
Speaker 1: It's it's the only product approved by the FDA that
Speaker 1: has a mechanical delivery of incident for both background and
Speaker 1: meal time insulin. It's also approved by the European Committee.
Speaker 1: And what kind of efficacy. Have you found in UH
Speaker 1: in patients that use this versus let's say, injectable insulin.
Speaker 1: We've demonstrated quite a breath of clinical studies showing the
Speaker 1: patients who are taking injectable insulin when they go to
Speaker 1: the vego, they significally lower their glucose. They do that
Speaker 1: with less prescribed insulin, so that allows them to actually
Speaker 1: get better results using less insulin and actually saving the
Speaker 1: payer system money because of that. Um it's very interesting.
Speaker 1: Of those six million people who take insulin, A large
Speaker 1: study asked these patients who are prescribed meal time insulin
Speaker 1: and sevy two percent said they never take ins and
Speaker 1: out of the house, So it's a huge problem for
Speaker 1: these patients. By wearing the vego underneath their clothing and
Speaker 1: simply being able to click buttons when they eat gives
Speaker 1: them the ability to control their diabetes better. What about
Speaker 1: the cost of vigo their beauty. The good thing about
Speaker 1: the vego is this is a single use, fullly disposable product,
Speaker 1: so it's not classified as a durable medical equipment, which
Speaker 1: is very very important for the reimbursement. Therefore, it's actually reimbursed,
Speaker 1: distributed and fulfilled more like a drug at the pharmacy.
Speaker 1: Ninety five percent of our product was fulfilled the pharmacy. Therefore,
Speaker 1: those patients go to the pharmacy with the prescription and
Speaker 1: they pay a monthly co pay. There's no large deductibles
Speaker 1: and co insurance like there is with durable equipment and
Speaker 1: durable insulin pumps. A couple of questions, so about the company,
Speaker 1: I know you did an alternative initial public offering, I
Speaker 1: believe back in May correct. What is an alternative public
Speaker 1: offering and why did you go that route? So essentially,
Speaker 1: an alternative public offering is essentially a company merging in
Speaker 1: with an already public company and then taking over and
Speaker 1: using that company as a public company. So you're right,
Speaker 1: Laritas now is a public company. We are traded with
Speaker 1: the chicker v l r X, and we did that
Speaker 1: because we're a company now that's at a commercial stage.
Speaker 1: We're an execution stage. We have regatory approval in the
Speaker 1: US and in um Europe. We are producing this at
Speaker 1: commercial scale. All we have a large clerical, steady data
Speaker 1: that's been published, and we have good reimbursement. So really
Speaker 1: it's the right time to access the public markets to
Speaker 1: help support the growth of the company, And what about distribution.
Speaker 1: Who's you have a partner or you're doing that. We
Speaker 1: do know we're actually doing this ourselves today yet. But
Speaker 1: because the product is distributed through the pharmacy channel, we
Speaker 1: basically can provide that product to any pharmacy in the
Speaker 1: country through the wholesalers. I want to thank you very
Speaker 1: much for coming in and sharing this information with us, right,
Speaker 1: Thank you very much. John Timberlake is the president and
Speaker 1: the chief executive of Valeritas talking about a new wearable device.
Speaker 1: It's called Vigo. You wear it on the skin under clothing.
Speaker 1: It's about two inches long, and it fills you with
Speaker 1: the insulin that you need all day long. This is
Speaker 1: taking Stock. I'm pim Fox, and this is Bloomberg.