Amylin and partner Takeda move obesity drug candidate into Ph III

USA-based Amylin Pharmaceuticals and Japan's largest drugmaker, Takeda Pharmaceutical says they have selected the combination treatment of pramlintide, an analog of the natural hormone amylin, and metreleptin, an analog of the natural hormone leptin, for advancement toward Phase III development. The decision to advance the program followed encouraging results from a 52-week blinded, placebo-controlled Phase II extension study. The pramlintide/metreleptin combination met the key target criteria of sustained and robust weight loss, the companies noted.

Amylin and Takeda entered into a worldwide exclusive license, development and commercialization agreement to co-develop and commercialize pharmaceutical products for the treatment of obesity and related indications last fall, under which The Japanese firm made an upfront payment of $75 million and agreed additional payments upon achieving certain development, commercialization and sales-based milestones that could exceed $1 billion. The agreement also provides for future tiered, double-digit royalty payments to Amylin based on global product sales.