News

Victory Park Capital (VPC), an asset-management firm specializing in direct credit and equity investing in middle and lower middle-market companies, announced that portfolio company Enteris BioPharma Inc. (Enteris), an innovative biotechnology company, has officially launched as a leading developer and manufacturer of proprietary, clinically proven oral dosage formulations and delivery solutions for peptides and small molecule therapeutics.

Enteris has named Brian Zietsman, former Chief Financial Officer of Unigene Laboratories, Inc. (Unigene), as President and Chief Financial Officer. The Boonton, N.J.-based company also announced the appointment of two additional executive management team members:

• Nozer Mehta, Ph.D., as Chief Scientific Officer
• Paul Shields, Ph.D., as Vice President of Operations

The three executives, who collectively possess more than 70 years of corporate, financial, scientific and operational experience, will spearhead Enteris’ mission of developing and delivering innovative formulation solutions for peptides and small molecules by leveraging its breakthrough delivery platform technologies including Peptelligence™, which was recently acquired from Unigene.

Peptelligence is a clinically proven formulation technology that enables the oral delivery of BCS class II, III and IV compounds in an enteric-coated tablet formulation. Peptelligence has demonstrated a track record of clinical success across a range of compounds and therapeutic indications, including a pivotal Phase 3 trial. The technology platform has been employed in feasibility studies with a number of biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies to move their products successfully into clinical development, thereby opening potential new avenues for patient care with a simple tablet dosage formulation.

“Enteris is a cutting edge biopharmaceutical company,” said Derek Ferguson, Investment Professional at VPC. “Its official launch marks the first step toward achieving its mission of building long-term strategic relationships with therapeutic partners, while overcoming their challenges in developing oral formulations for both peptides and poorly soluble and permeable small molecules. Enteris’ world-class proprietary technologies are ready to meet these challenges and will provide compelling solutions to industry partners.”

Mr. Zietsman, who brings more than 20 years of strategic finance and accounting experience to Enteris, said he welcomes the opportunity to lead Enteris “as we seek to become the industry leader in the oral delivery of peptides and difficult-to-deliver small molecule therapeutics.” He noted that Enteris will target a myriad of therapeutic indications in which physician acceptance and patient compliance stand to improve through more convenient and effective delivery mechanisms.