IPO Filing: Sirtris, A Diabetes Biotech

By Douglas A. McIntyre Published Mar 2, 11:55AM EST

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There has been another diabetes treatment-seeker that has filed to come public. Sirtris Pharmaceuticals has filed for an IPO and it has enlisted JPMorgan, CIBC, Piper Jaffray, JMP Securities, and Rodman & Renshaw as the underwriters. Its proposed ticker on NASDAQ is "SIRT."

The biopharmaceutical company is focused on discovering and developing oral small molecule drugs to treat diseases associated with aging, including metabolic diseases such as Type 2 Diabetes. Its drug candidates are designed to mimic certain beneficial health effects of calorie restriction, without requiring a change in eating habits.

Here is how the company describes the progress of its studies straight out of the prospectus: In two Phase 1a human clinical studies, SRT501 was found to be safe and well tolerated. In these studies, SRT501 was administered orally, once daily, to 85 healthy male volunteers for seven days, in order to evaluate safety, dose, tolerability and pharmacokinetics. The trial demonstrated dose proportional drug levels in the blood. All of the reported adverse events were reversible and none were serious. Based on these results and preclinical data, we initiated a Phase 1b study in October 2006 in patients with Type 2 Diabetes who were not on medication for their disease. The Phase 1b trial is designed to evaluate the safety and pharmacokinetics of SRT501 in 90 patients with Type 2 Diabetes using oral administration of SRT501 for 28 days. We have also initiated a similar Phase 1b study with twice daily dosing. We expect data from these studies in the second half of 2007.

Obviously this one has all the proper "buzz category" as it is well known that the effects of diabetes (plus related effects) are the largest medical expense arena in the US. This will be one to watch for sure, but keep in mind that it is still in its earliest stages and it is highly focused in one specific target.

Jon C. Ogg
March 2, 2007

About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.