Public offering, CEO's departure come as company continues to grow

By Monica Chen

mchen@heraldsun.com; 419-6636

DURHAM -- Inspire Pharmaceuticals, a drug company focusing on ophthalmic and pulmonary diseases in southern Durham, has gone through a spate of changes this month.

First, the company announced along with second quarter revenues at the start of this month that its longtime CEO, Christy Shaffer, was stepping down.

A couple days later, the company announced it would offer up $80 million of its common stock in a public offering, with Deutsche Bank Securities as the sole underwriter.

The sale paid off. The company generated $109 million in net income that will be used to complete clinical trials for three products in late-stage, preparing them for commercial launch that company executives say will take the company to the global level.

In her explanation during the company's earnings call, Shaffer said her stepping down was a personal decision.

"I've enjoyed enabling our platform of science to lead to our innovative pipeline, which has helped Inspire grow from a small entrepreneurial company to a public company with a strong integrated commercial infrastructure as well as our development activity," she said.

"I believe the company is now at the appropriate stage for this transition, given our current portfolio of marketed products, and the late-stage nature of our clinical programs nearing potential approval, launch and global commercialization."

In a recent interview, Jenny Kobin, the company's vice president of Investor Relations, echoed Shaffer's comments: "We feel like we have a very strong foundation to advance the company to the next level, and we have a couple catalysts."

Those catalysts are Azasite, the company's pink eye solution; Prolacria, the dry eye treatment; and cystic fibrosis drug Denufosol. Proclacria and Denufosol are both in Phase 3 clinical trials, and Kobin said they will bolster the commercial infrastructure of the company to eventually launch these products. No additional hirings are planned for the sales force at this time, however.

Inspire, founded in 1993, has grown from a UNC Chapel Hill spinout to a public company with its own research and development as well as sales force. Among its 227-person staff, 100 are in sales. The company was taken public in 2000.

Inspire reported a net loss of $9.5 million for second quarter 2009. Shaffer has been CEO since January 1999 and assumed the title of president in June 2005. She was the company's first full-time employee.

As for the new CEO, Kobin said the company has not set a specific timeframe for the new hire. The search is underway globally at this point, and the new CEO will have to be a seasoned executive with experience launching products and dealing with international opportunities, Kobin said.

"We expect to build and commercialize a sustainable pipeline of treatments that would specifically be in North America, as in having feet on the street," she said. "But we also have global rights in most cases for products we've developed in-house, so we want to make sure the product is leveraged globally as well."

The company is looking at commercializing treatments in the U.S. and Canada. Depending on which product advances in testing, she said, they will leverage existing resources in North America.

As for the timing of the public offering, Kobin said the market was more receptive than 6-9 months ago.

"You just look for the most attractive environment to do it in," she said.