Napo in plant screening deal with Nicholas Piramal

US firm Napo Pharmaceuticals and Nicholas Piramal of India have entered into a plant screening collaboration to discover novel diabetes therapeutic agents.

As part of the deal, NPIL will utilize its high-throughput screening facility and natural product chemistry expertise along with biological's library of medicinal plant extracts from tropical regions. Napo and NP will jointly own all products that are developed under the agreement.

Lisa Conte, Napo's chief executive commented: "this agreement provides an excellent opportunity for us to expand our pipeline with potentially significant novel discoveries targeting the needs of global health care - in this case diabetes. Diabetes has become an illness of global proportions and the incidence is expected to reach approximately 30% of the population over the next 15 years, with the most staggering growth rates in developing and emerging economies...Our joint efforts in this agreement complement Napo's ongoing effort to develop NP-500, a candidate for Phase II clinical development with a novel mechanism of action against type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome."