Takeda and Amylin to Co-develop Obesity Treatments

Amylin Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and Takeda Pharmaceuticals Company Limited announced an agreement to co-develop and commercialize pharmaceutical products for the treatment of obseity and related conditions. Amylin, whose top product, Byetta, had sales of $678.5 million last year. will receive a one-time up-front payment of $75 million from Takeda, the largest pharmaceutical company in Japan and maker of Actos, a best-selling diabetes drug. In a press release, Takeda writes, “Under the terms of the agreement, Amylin will be responsible for executing development activities for potential products through phase 2 with the aim of regulatory approval in the U.S. Takeda will lead development activities beyond phase 2 in the U.S., and all development activities outside the U.S. “

Obesity has become a major health problem and has reached epidemic proportions globally, with more than 1 billion adults overweight, and at least 300 million of them obese. Obesity is linked several medical conditions including type 2 diabetes.