At the start of each of the last five years, the share price of Alkermes has increased. It’s the kind of steady trajectory one might expect of a company that has undergone little change.
Guess again.
“If you look behind the curtain, we’ve maintained a basic market cap of four to five billion, while completely changing the business underneath it,” Richard Pops, Alkermes’ chairman and CEO, said in an interview with Fierce Pharma. “In many ways, it’s sort of like the duck that looks calm on the surface of the water and then the feet are paddling pretty quickly underneath.”
Much of the paddling came in 2023, when Alkermes spun off its cancer business into an independent company called Mural Oncology and then sold its manufacturing facility in Athlone, Ireland, to Novo Nordisk for $92.5 million.
While the bulk of Alkermes’ revenue was once royalty- and manufacturing-based and came in part from its innovative drug delivery technology, it’s now reliant on neuroscience products that it develops and sells on its own.
In an industry where a decade is a long run for a chief executive, Pops has been in charge at Alkermes since 1991, guiding its rise and subsequent transformation.
“It’s a tough job. I became the CEO when I was 28. I’m 128 now,” Pops quipped.
This week at the 43rd J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference, Pops will be touting Alkermes’ rare set of attributes as a self-funded neuroscience biotech with an intriguing orexin program.
“Many of these biotech companies that will be presenting here, they’re money-losing companies that need to raise money. They’re always trying to convince investors to buy their stuff,” Pops said. “We don’t need that.”
The company's lead pipeline asset, ALKS 2680, is in a phase 2 trial for narcolepsy. The oral orexin agonist is making noise—along with Takeda’s rival asset TAK-861—for its ability to address the circuitry in the brain that drives wakefulness.
“People with narcolepsy, the drugs they’ve been using to treat their condition have basically been blunt instruments,” Pops said of the current array of stimulants and sedatives that treat the condition.
Meanwhile, Alkermes and Takeda’s orexin agonists “could be the first disease modifying drugs in narcolepsy,” Pops added.
Alkermes also is developing its orexin program for other psychiatric indications, Pops said.
Until ALKS 2680 hits the market, Alkermes will generate much of its revenue from schizophrenia treatment Aristada and alcohol- and opioid-dependence drug Vivitrol, which combined for sales of $574 million in the first three quarters of 2024. The company also realizes royalties from commercial partner Biogen on sales of multiple sclerosis drug Vumerity.
Alkermes also has high hopes for schizophrenia and bipolar combo drug Lybalvi, the selling point of which is its ability to help patients avoid the weight gain typical of medicines in the indications. The drug generated $203 million during the first nine months of 2024.
“The theme for this year [at J.P. Morgan] is how simple the idea is—it’s a self-funded company focused on some really exciting new areas,” Pops said. “The X-factor is how big and how quickly the orexin program matures.”