!["Ultimately our goal is to build a very large pharmaceutical company. If we're successful, [the impact] should be very significant." —Fritz French, CEO of Marcadia](../img/callout/marcadia.gif)
Feature
New Diabetes Drugs on the Horizon
December 22, 2006
Emerging Indiana company Marcadia Biotech to develop novel treatments for metabolic diseases
Richard DiMarchi, professor of chemistry and the Jack and Linda Gill Distinguished Chair in Biomolecular Science at IU Bloomington, is developing user-friendly glucagon products that could help better control diabetes.
Among the many health challenges facing Hoosiers, diabetes is near the top of the list. A leading cause of blindness, kidney disease, and amputations, diabetes is on the rise throughout the United States, and especially in Indiana, where rates of diabetes are above the national average. Even more worrisome, thanks in part to skyrocketing obesity rates among Hoosier children, type 2 diabetes—normally occurring mainly in adults—has become prevalent in kids. Treating diabetes costs Hoosiers nearly $4.5 billion every year.
But now, thanks to a new collaboration between the IU Research & Technology Corporation (IURTC) and the start-up company Marcadia Biotech, diabetics may soon have safer, more effective, and more convenient medicines to help manage their disease and improve their health.
The Carmel, Indiana-based Marcadia Biotech was founded in late 2005 by Richard DiMarchi, Chair of the IU Bloomington Chemistry Department, Kent Hawryluk, and August Watanabe. In November of 2006, the company signed a licensing agreement with IURTC and a sponsored research agreement with IU to develop drugs created in DiMarchi's laboratory to treat metabolic diseases such as diabetes and obesity that affect how the body's cells produce energy.
Marcadia's first product will be a ready-to-use injector pen that dispenses glucagon, a compound that reverses low blood sugar by causing the liver to release a chemical called glucose. The pen will allow diabetics to more easily treat emergency cases of hypoglycemia, or low blood sugar. DiMarchi hopes that the pen will simplify treatment for diabetics.
"My vision is to someday have something like the EpiPen, so diabetics can treat themselves when they have low blood sugar in the same way someone can treat an allergic reaction with the EpiPen," DiMarchi said.
According to Fritz French, CEO of Marcadia, all diabetics on insulin therapy are at risk for hypoglycemia.
"Everyone is at risk, and even though the risk is low, it is a serious condition," French said. Hypoglycemic events are particularly troublesome for children, for whom they often happen in the middle of the night.
French said that Marcadia's research with endocrinologists, diabetes nurse-educators, and diabetics has revealed that current emergency treatment kits are "not very user-friendly, to say the least." The complex procedure required to prepare them is time-consuming and not well-suited to emergency situations. The injector pen will provide an alternative that is more portable and quicker and easier to administer.
In the future, DiMarchi would also like to see glucagon used in a preventive capacity. "[It's] far better to prevent the emergence of hypoglycemia than to treat it," DiMarchi said. Marcadia is interested in investigating longer-acting medications that could, for example, be used at bedtime to prevent nocturnal hypoglycemia.
"The work we're conducting is expanding the potential for medicines and how they can be taken, and giving patients options that are safer, more effective, and more convenient," DiMarchi said.
Although the company is still in the early stages of development, French is optimistic about the impact Marcadia will have on the life sciences in Indiana. "Ultimately our goal is to build a very large pharmaceutical company," he said. "If we're successful, [the impact] should be very significant."
