MEDICURE
MEDICURE MARKS A QUARTER-CENTURY MILESTONE
BY KRISTIN MARAND
Medicure is a Winnipeg biotech firm celebrating 25 years in business by coming full circle with a product aimed at combatting a rare pediatric disease. Medicure CEO Dr. Albert Friesen was instrumental in the development of the WinRho drug, one of Canada’s first successful biotech products, which prevents Rh hemolytic disease in newborns. Friesen launched Medicure in 1997 as a company focused on devel- oping cardiovascular drugs. The initial goal of the company was to bring its first product, MC-1, from concept to FDA approval. MC-1 was designed to protect against a condition that can occur in cardiovas- cular patients undergoing bypass surgery when cells dysfunction or die after blood flow has been restricted then restored. This is known as ischemic reperfusion injury for which there is still no approved drug. Between 1997 and 2008, Medicure raised $140 million and saw the idea from conception through studies and eventually to the pivotal approval trial. However, MC-1 did not sufficiently meet the end points in the Phase 3 pivotal trial for FDA approval. Before the word “pivot” was on everyone’s radar due to COVID, that’s exactly what Medi- cure was forced to face. “This is actually something I am most proud of. In 2008 when the pivotal Phase 3 trial of MC-1 did not achieve its primary end point, Medicure was able to survive and eventually thrive during a very challenging time,” Friesen says. During this time, Medicure shifted gears to focus on marketing Aggrastat, a product used to treat the symptoms of blood clots or heart attack. “At the time we unlocked the data, we only had sufficient cash to carry on the existing business for about six months. We survived what is sometimes referred to in our business as the ‘winter of discontent’ with little or no money to grow Aggrastat,” Friesen recalls. In a remarkable feat of resilience, the Medicure team grew the market share of Aggrastat sales from two per cent to 65 per cent. “At Medicure we work to find unmet needs in the health-care space. Through our rela- tionships that have taken years to develop, we work with key opinion leaders in the U.S. health-care space to find their ‘pain-points,’” Friesen explains.
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WINTER 2022
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