Innovative Science That Addresses Patient Needs Will Power Biopharma Success

Over the last few months, we have continued to see an encouraging bounce-back in investment within the biotechnology sector after experiencing a significant drop from the peak, only three years before, in 2021. There are several reasons that may explain this improving environment – ranging from global and macro-economic factors, a rebound in the stock market, increasing energy and enthusiasm around biotech IPO's, to a boom in recent merger and acquisition activity – however, having just participated in a successful Investor Day event Lexicon Pharmaceuticals hosted, I see a different possibility. I believe that the fundamental focus on sound, innovative, science crossed with solutions designed to truly improve patients’ lives will drive continued success and value-creation across stakeholders.

Lexicon may be an unusual example in that we have brought forth therapies through all phases of drug development – from discovery, to approval, and commercialization – which is rare for a single biotech company to accomplish. But the story of our Investor Day, for existing products and our pipeline, is one that many other companies share: if you remain steadfast in the execution of your mission, good things happen. Our company mission is simple, we want to introduce scientific value for patients to improve their lives, and by following our mission we have gained valuable insights serious health conditions and pursuit of what we believe will be impactful therapies for patients.

This all started with a bold scientific base; a project called Genome 5000 which was a multi-year effort to systematically define the functions of some 5,000 druggable genes in mammalian physiology and behavior. This provided focus, which led to concentration in areas of significant unmet medical needs, which in many cases were large and growing leading to significant impacts on the healthcare sector, including heart failure, type 1 diabetes, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM, a challenging and progressive heart condition), diabetic peripheral neuropathic pain (DPNP), and obesity amp; weight management.

As with many other biotech companies in these early months of 2024, we have seen the value of deliberately and persistently following the science translating into strong pipeline of medicines for Lexicon, all of which offer the potential for meaningful patient benefits - which is the ultimate goal of the industry as a whole. And with our recent over-subscribed financing of $250 million, the Lexicon Team is now fully focused on executing on the many near and mid-terms catalysts with urgency. The team and I are excited by these meaningful opportunities to further improve patient outcomes and we are dedicated to delivering on the promise of these programs for patients in need, and more broadly, our company stakeholders. I look forward to being able to report on the positive progress of our efforts in these critical disease areas in the future.