New Idorsia CEO Srishti Gupta is emphasising “financial discipline” as she looks to turn around the fortunes of one of Europe’s top biotechs.
Challenging Times
Gupta, who spent almost two decades at consultancy firm McKinsey, inherits a company that managed to launch three drugs in its first seven years of existence, but which has been beset by financial problems in recent years. In 2023, after spending big to establish commercial operations, it paid out USD 343 million to J&J to reacquire aprocitentan, a drug for resistant hypertension originally developed by Idorsia’s predecessor company Actelion.
To balance its books, the company cut 475 predominantly R&D-focused positions at its Swiss headquarters, and sold its operating businesses in Asia-Pacific, before selling global rights to two Phase III candidates to Viatris for USD 350 million.
In late 2024, Idorsia – then under interim CEO André Muller after the retirement of founder Jean-Paul Clozel – outlined a further potential 270 job cuts and was close to a USD 35 million deal for its recently approved hypertension treatment Tryvio (aprocitentan) which ultimately fell through.
The collapse of the Tryvio deal and Idorsia’s subsequently strained resources led to the firm embarking on a convertible bond restructuring and adjusting its R&D collaboration with Viatris. Idorsia will now not pay USD 100 million in agreed development costs this year and will potentially miss out on USD 250 million in milestone payments.
A New Dawn
Previously a board member, Gupta now takes the helm after interim CEO André Muller steadied the ship during turbulent times. Upon her appointment, Clozel described Gupta as possessing “the perfect mix of scientific thinking, medical knowledge, and leadership qualities” (in addition to her time as a management consultant, Gupta is also a Harvard-trained medical doctor).
She said that her aim is to “balance ambition with financial discipline, which means we will make smart, focused investments in the most promising assets.”
Currently top of the list of promising assets is the firm’s insomnia drug Quvivic. While Idorsia is still a couple years away from profitability, according to its most recent internal projections, strong uptake of this product in Europe, plus a recently secured EUR 150 million funding facility, and a milestone payment from a partner led to a reduction in losses from EUR 170 million to EUR 15 million in the first half of the year.
Gupta, as part of an exclusive and wide-ranging conversation with PharmaBoardroom, was bullish as to this product’s impact and potential. “The scientific team’s thoughtfulness regarding half-life optimisation, brain penetration characteristics, receptor selectivity, and mechanism specificity creates a direct correlation between sophisticated medicinal chemistry and patient satisfaction,” she stated.
“Our European success stems from leveraging its unique therapeutic profile. Our marketing emphasises three critical differentiators: enhanced night-time sleep quality, improved next-day functioning, and chronic use safety without addiction potential. These benefits directly reflect our novel mechanism of action: we suppress wakefulness signals rather than inducing sedation, distinguishing us fundamentally from traditional sleep medications and eliminating associated side effects.”
In the US, progress has been slower. Regulators classified the treatment as a controlled substance in 2022, creating significant market access barriers, as commercial insurers implement formulary restrictions requiring patients to attempt alternatives before accessing the product. Idorsia is now actively pursuing descheduling through FDA and DEA petition processes.
Discipline & Focus
While the existential threats of recent years seem to have receded, and there is once more cause for optimism at Idorsia, Gupta is keenly aware that she is not operating with a blank chequebook.
“Whilst we have addressed immediate financial pressures, our runway remains constrained, necessitating disciplined capital allocation balanced with strategic ambition,” she states.
Drawing on Gupta’s 18 years as a management consultant advising biotechs on how best to cut their cloth according to their means, there is hope that a more rigorous and disciplined Idorsia can thrive once more.
She describes her mandate as optimising the company’s “dual-engine model”: maximising revenue generation through commercial operations whilst making targeted investments in its most innovative pipeline assets.
“This creates what I characterise as the sustainable biotech flywheel: commercial profitability funding continued research and development innovation,” explains Gupta.
“Specifically, we are focusing investments on optimising our insomnia treatment, which represents our primary commercial asset. Following a comprehensive portfolio review, we have identified our most promising pipeline opportunities, emphasising our philosophy of disease modification rather than symptom management. This approach drives innovation across drug design, clinical trial methodology, and collaborative partnerships.”
“The challenges of recent years have both humbled and strengthened our organisation,” Gupta concludes. “We emerge more resilient, more focused, and more committed to our fundamental mission of bringing transformational science to patients worldwide.” Investors and patients alike will be watching closely to see whether, under Gupta’s leadership, Idorsia can fulfil its potential.
