Zealand, Boehringer to advance new peptide medicines

The collaboration is aimed at developing new medicines for improved treatment of patients with cardio-metabolic diseases.

First agreement between the two companies was signed in June 2011, which is aimed at developing and commercializing new glucagon/GLP-1 dual-acting peptide therapeutics for the treatment of patients with Type 2 diabetes and/or obesity.

Zealand president and CEO David Solomon said this second agreement secures additional funding and attractive value potential to the company.

"It demonstrates our strong partner relations with Boehringer Ingelheim, leveraging Zealand’s expertise in the design and development of therapeutic peptides to now cover an additional target in the cardio-metabolic disease area," Solomon said.

"We look forward to working with Boehringer Ingelheim towards selection of the first preclinical peptide therapeutic to be advanced in development under this new agreement."

As part of the new deal, both the firms will combine their research expertise for up to four and a half years focusing on the continued discovery, identification and characterization of novel peptide medicine candidates within the selected therapeutic target area of cardio-metabolic disease.

The firms will work together to advance the therapeutic peptides stemming from this research collaboration into preclinical development.

The deal will see Boehringer responsible for carrying out preclinical and clinical development as well as for the commercialization and solely fund the research, development and commercialization of products.

Zealand is eligible to receive about €295m in potential milestone payments for the first commercialized product plus research funding and royalties.