Theratech licenses anti-diabetics to OctoPlus

Dutch drug-delivery and development company OctoPlus NV has acquired exclusive worldwide rights to develop and commercialize a family of compounds, including a glucagon-like peptide-1 agonist product candidate, for the treatment of type 2 diabetes, from Canadian drugmaker Theratechnologies. Under the terms of the deal, OctoPlus will pay the firm milestone payments and royalties on eventual sales. Most of the milestones relate to the completion of successful clinical phases and the achievement of preset sales levels, and could amount to up to 36.0 million euros ($50.7 million). Further terms were not disclosed.

Octoplus says it has selected the GLP-1 product candidate for development into a long-acting controlled-release formulation that may reduce the required dosing frequency relative to other commonly-used anti-diabetics, and that may also have better performance. According to the World Health Organization, over 180 million people suffer from diabetes worldwide. OctoPlus says that global sales of drugs for this disorder will exceed $22.0 billion by 2011.