July 6 (Bloomberg) -- Ipsen SA says it has so many promising treatments coming out of its laboratories that it’s a struggle to develop them all.

“We have enough products in early development, we may even have too many,” Chief Executive Officer Jean-Luc Belingard said in an interview. The company’s experimental cancer drugs “are prompting regular approaches from others in the field but for now we have turned a deaf ear.”

Ipsen began selling a rival to Allergan Inc.’s Botox in the U.S. last month through Medicis Pharmaceutical Corp. and has 23 compounds in development, including a breast cancer drug that may compete with Novartis AG’s Femara and AstraZeneca Plc’s Arimidex and a diabetes treatment with Roche Holding AG.

The family-controlled drugmaker, known in France for its Smecta diarrhea remedy, spent 19 percent of sales on research last year, more than larger rival Sanofi-Aventis SA. Taspoglutide, the diabetes medicine licensed to Switzerland’s Roche, may garner annual sales of 1 billion euros ($1.4 billion) or more, according to Guillaume Cuvillier, an analyst at Gilbert Dupont in Paris.

Belingard, who spoke in an interview at Ipsen’s Boulogne- Billancourt headquarters just outside Paris, began focusing the company on specific areas of research such as cancer and gland disorders when he took over as CEO seven years ago.

Cancer Medicines

The result is what Ipsen describes as a slew of experimental drugs, including 10 in early stages of development, five in phase II, the second level of medical tests, and eight in advanced research.

A cancer-fighting compound known as BN 83495, which works by blocking the production of estrogen that fuels tumor growth, could challenge sales of Novartis’s Femara and AstraZeneca’s Arimidex, according to Thierry Verrecchia, an analyst at Raymond James in Paris, who has a “strong buy” on Ipsen stock. Arimidex had sales of $1.86 billion last year.

Belingard, 60, says the company has other cancer compounds in development that are “even more promising.”

“We don’t have enough money to finance all the projects we would like to, but we prefer it to be this way, rather than the other way around,” Stephane Thiroloix, Ipsen’s head of corporate development, said at a June 15 press conference.

‘Not Taking Off’

The shelves aren’t so crowded at some of Ipsen’s bigger rivals. France’s Sanofi announced last week a reorganization of its research department meant to spur innovation and find new drugs. The company is hunting for acquisitions and partnerships to replenish its pipeline.

Other drugmakers, also faced with a dearth of new drugs and looming patent expiries, are merging. Pfizer Inc., the industry leader by size, agreed to buy Wyeth for about $62.9 billion on Jan 26. Merck & Co. said March 9 it planned to purchase Schering-Plough Corp., a transaction worth $45.4 billion.

“We have nothing to do with all this,” Belingard said. “Our pipeline has compounds that are all very attractive in their own way.”

If investors are impressed, they’re not showing it. Ipsen shares slipped 11 percent over the past year, the ninth-worst performing stock in the Bloomberg index that tracks 18 European drugmakers. Sanofi gained 2.4 percent in the same period.

“The stock isn’t taking off,” said Gilbert Dupont’s Cuvillier. “Nobody is invulnerable to R&D failures and there are uncertainties surrounding Taspoglutide.”

Not the Same

Novo Nordisk A/S’s rival drug liraglutide has been linked to an increased risk of thyroid cancer in mice. Ipsen shares dropped 13 percent on the day an advisory panel to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration failed to back the Novo Nordisk drug.

Both medicines are known as GLP-1 analogues and mimic a hormone that stimulates the pancreas to produce insulin when blood sugar levels rise too much. Diabetics can’t produce enough insulin to absorb sugar.

“Each product in that class is individual,” Belingard said. “Taspoglutide isn’t liraglutide.” The Ipsen drug is in the third and final stage of research.

Ipsen is betting its expansion in the U.S. will help propel sales further. The company entered the U.S. market last year, with the purchase of Brisbane, California-based Tercica Inc. It aims for sales of more than $300 million there in 2012, compared with none in 2007.

The target is “attainable,” said Raymond James’s Verrecchia. “They don’t have big means but they do coherent things” and in the U.S. they target “doctors specialized in endocrinology and neurology, meaning they don’t need hundreds of salesmen.”

Ipsen faces other challenges, one of them being how to remain competitive in cancer, a field that requires substantial investments for later-stage product development, Belingard said.

For now, “we go along on our own,” in that area, he said. “But will we going along on our own forever? I doubt it.”

Ipsen is 73 percent-owned by Mayroy, a holding company controlled by the Beaufour family, which founded the drugmaker in 1929. The Beaufours won’t sell anytime soon, Belingard said.

“The family cares a lot about the company’s independence, he said. “Ipsen is absolutely not up for sale.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Albertina Torsoli in Paris at atorsoli@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: July 5, 2009 19:01 EDT