Emisphere says next few months pivotal for eligen technology

By Jennifer Lanning Drey

Eugene, Ore., Sept. 13 - Emisphere Technologies Inc.'s next few months will be pivotal in the history of its eligen oral drug delivery platform, Michael Goldberg, chief executive officer of Emisphere, said Wednesday at the ThinkEquity growth conference.

Emisphere is preparing for a meeting with the Food and Drug Administration in which the company will present results from a clinical study that Goldberg said demonstrated heparin delivered orally using the eligen technology is chemically identical to heparin delivered by injection.

"We believe the results show, to the atom, that heparin is no different orally administered as compared to injected," he said.

At the meeting, Emisphere expects the FDA to detail future actions that will be necessary for approval of its oral heparin formulation, Goldberg said.

The company is also preparing to generate and report results from a 130-patient study of an oral insulin formulation that uses the eligen technology for delivery. The last patient completed the study on Sept. 4.

Emisphere has already seen the blinded results of the study and is optimistic about the final results, Goldberg said.

"We have a pretty good sense that there is activity here and how that activity is playing out. We just don't know what arms of the study are represented by the results we've seen," he said.

If the final results are positive, Emisphere's next step will be to seek a partner for the program, he said.

Goldberg also said Wednesday that the company hopes to begin advancing additional compounds being developed in its pipeline.

"We hope with the upcoming events that we have ongoing to [be able to] start focusing on some of these newer products that we're working on with major pharma companies and on our own at this point, which I think will be the next generation and next set of opportunities," Goldberg said.

Emisphere is a biopharmaceutical company developing oral forms of injectable drugs using its proprietary eligen technology. The company is located in Tarrytown, N.Y.

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