Intarcia Appoints Jay Smith Head of Customer Experience & Outcomes

BOSTON, Feb. 26, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Intarcia Therapeutics, Inc. today formally announced the appointment of Jay Smith as Head of Customer Experience & Outcomes (CXO), an officer level position for which there is no precedent or analogue in the Bio-Pharma industry. The role focuses on one of the highest priorities within the company – to optimize the customer experience and treatment outcome for every customer and patient who touches an Intarcia product. In the new role, Mr. Smith joins the Executive Team and reports directly to Chairman, President & CEO Kurt Graves.

"Jay is well qualified to shape what customer experience and outcomes (CXO) can be in our industry – and I'm thrilled he is joining us to do it right here at Intarcia," said Mr. Graves. "At Intarcia we are advancing totally novel and disruptive once-yearly medicines for serious and chronic diseases like diabetes and obesity.   When you have a disruptive and innovative medicine in a category like diabetes, you must do everything from day 1 to optimize training, identify and implement best practices, and continuously enhance our technologies to optimize the entire customer experience right from the start.  This will result in consistent and optimal outcomes for patients, providers and payors."

"With ITCA 650, our once-yearly product in phase 3 trials for diabetes, we have a major CXO initiative already underway in all our sites around the world, but this way of thinking, and the capabilities we and our partners are building, will extend to our entire pipeline of new products," said Mr. Smith.  "We clearly have breakthrough products and technologies at Intarcia, and my job is to pull that innovation through at the patient, provider and payor levels to ensure we are just as innovative about how we optimize customer experiences and outcomes for each of those key stakeholders."

Prior to joining Intarcia, Mr. Smith had a very successful career at J&J, Novartis and Sunovion. He built and led both large and small teams in top Sales and Marketing positions, and his groups and brands were often top ranked blockbusters – outperforming their competition year after year. He also has demonstrated the critical values of putting patients and optimal outcomes for customers at the center of thinking within the Sales and Marketing Divisions where he worked. Some of the physician and consumer programs Jay worked on were ground-breaking in the industry. 

In his new role at Intarcia as CXO, Mr. Smith's senior leadership position will empower him to carry out this bold and broad-based mission for the company. "With my full support and that of the company as a whole, Jay will work closely with our medical, distribution and commercial teams to spearhead a dramatically different approach to the launch of Intarcia products – one fully dedicated to optimal customer experiences and outcomes for patients, providers and payors alike," said Mr. Graves. "Our goal at Intarcia is to create a new Bio-Pharma model of the ideal CXO function and we are taking best practices from other industries where the function has produced great results." Mr. Smith's mandate will be to shape CXO, execute it effectively, measure the success and continuously improve on it to build sustainable innovation and competitive advantage for Intarcia – and ultimately a world of difference for patients, providers and payors alike.

About ITCA 650
ITCA 650 (a once- or twice-yearly continuous subcutaneous delivery of exenatide) is being developed for the treatment of type 2 diabetes. The investigational therapy combines Intarcia's proprietary technology platform, a matchstick-size osmotic mini-pump that is placed sub-dermally to provide continuous and consistent drug therapy, and the company's proprietary formulation technology, which maintains stability of therapeutic proteins and peptides at human body temperatures for extended periods of time.

Data from Intarcia's ITCA 650 Phase 2 program have demonstrated significant and sustained reductions in HbA1c and body weight over 48 weeks of treatment with a marked reduction in the GI adverse events typically associated with the self-injection products in this class. ITCA 650 is an investigational new therapy and is not currently approved by any regulatory authority. Exenatide, the active agent in ITCA 650, is a glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonist currently marketed globally as twice-daily and once-weekly self-injection therapies for type 2 diabetes. Upon approval, ITCA 650 would represent the first injection-free GLP-1 therapy that can deliver a full year of treatment from a single placement. Intarcia's robust intellectual property portfolio protects ITCA 650 through 2031. ITCA 650 is currently in a global phase 3 clinical trial program called FREEDOM.  The first interim phase 3 data were reported at the JP Morgan conference in January of this year and viewed as very promising. Further results will be reported later in 2014 and 2015.

About Intarcia Therapeutics, Inc.
Intarcia Therapeutics, Inc. is a biopharmaceutical company developing therapies to enhance treatment outcomes by optimizing and improving the efficacy, continuous administration and tolerability of drug therapies. In addition, delivering medicines just once or twice yearly virtually ensures patient adherence and compliance, which is very poor in most chronic diseases. Intarcia's drug development expertise and competitive edge are demonstrated by its abilities to stabilize proteins and peptides at above-body temperature and to deliver them in a constant and consistent manner via Intarcia's proprietary technology platform. Intarcia is conducting a Phase 3-stage development program for type 2 diabetes and has additional early development programs ongoing for weight regulation to control obesity. For more information on the Company, please visit www.intarcia.com.

Intarcia and its logo are registered trademarks of Intarcia Therapeutics, Inc.

SOURCE Intarcia Therapeutics, Inc.