Novo Nordisk has announced the signing of an exclusive Development and Licence Agreement with Emisphere Technologies, Inc. to develop and commercialize oral formulations ofNovo Nordisk’s insulins. This is the second license agreement between the two companies. The first agreement for the development of oral formulations of GLP-1 receptor agonists was signed in June 2008 with a potential drug currently in a phase 1 clinical trial.
Novo Nordisk seeks to use Emisphere’s broad-based drug delivery technology platform for oral administration of proteins, known as the Eligen® Technology, to develop oral versions of Novo Nordisk insulin products.
The insulin agreement includes 57.5 million US dollars in potential product development and sales milestone payments to Emisphere, of which 5 million dollars will be payable upon signing, as well as royalties on sales. Further financial details of the agreement were not made public.
Source: http://www.novonordisk.com/press/sea/sea.asp
This will be a wonderful addition for diabetics. I hope it gets approved.
Don’t get too excited folks, the company announced that it had subcontracted work with this firm in late 2009; only now has it announced a “partnership” of sorts. Still, many hurdles remain and this may very well be another version of the AERx inhaled insulin system Novo Nordisk was developing in partnership with Aradigm, which was shelved in 2008. At the time that was canned, Lars Rebien Sorensen, the company’s CEO, said in a press release: “Fast-acting inhaled insulin in the form it is known today is unlikely to offer significant clinical or convenience benefits over injections of modern insulin with… Read more »