Zealand Meets Development Milestone in Collaboration with Boehringer Ingelheim

Boehringer Ingelheim has selected a novel peptide therapeutic to be advanced into preclinical development under one of two ongoing collaboration agreements between itself and Zealand. This collaboration, initiated in July 2014, covers a novel therapeutic peptide project from Zealand’s preclinical portfolio with the aim of Zealand and Boehringer Ingelheim to join forces in the design and development of novel medicines for improved treatment of patients with cardio-metabolic diseases. The biological target is not being disclosed.

Under the terms of the agreement, the companies have successfully advanced therapeutic peptides stemming from the collaboration towards preclinical development. With the selection of a first preclinical candidate, Boehringer Ingelheim will now be responsible for the conduct and funding of the preclinical and potentially clinical development as well as commercialization. The event has triggered a milestone payment from Boehringer Ingelheim to Zealand.

Commenting on the milestone achievement, Keld Fosgerau, acting senior vice president, head of research at Zealand said, “The selection for preclinical development of a lead peptide therapeutic arising from our second fruitful research collaboration with Boehringer Ingelheim is an important milestone. It demonstrates the impact of Zealand’s approach to peptide science in the cardio-metabolic space and further substantiates our portfolio of out-licensed products, which is developing alongside our growing proprietary pipeline.”

Zealand and Boehringer signed a first collaboration agreement in June 2011, which is ongoing. This covers the development and commercialization of novel glucagon/GLP-1 dual-acting peptide therapeutics to treat patients with Type 2 diabetes and/or obesity. Under this collaboration, Boehringer Ingelheim has a lead development candidate in preclinical development.

The announced milestone is associated with a payment of €3 million to Zealand. The payment does not change Zealand’s financial outlook for 2015, which includes expected total milestone payments of €21 million.

Dependent upon the achievement of pre-defined development, regulatory and commercial milestones, Zealand is eligible to receive potential payments of up to a total of €295 million for the first compound, developed and marketed under this collaboration. Under the first collaboration agreement, Zealand is eligible to receive potential remaining development, regulatory and commercial milestones of up to a total of €365 million. Under both agreements, Zealand is also entitled to royalties on global sales of products stemming from the collaborations, while retaining co-commercialization rights in Scandinavia.