Boehringer Ingelheim acquires promising inflammation assets

Boehringer Ingelheim has announced the acquisition of the FX125L compound and somatotaxin programme from the private company Funxional Therapeutics.

The company has paid an undisclosed fee to purchase the innovative small molecule, which was recently studied in a phase II trial and offers potential efficacy against a broad range of inflammatory diseases.

Following the acquisition of global rights to the drug, Boehringer Ingelheim will be responsible for all further research, development and commercialisation of FX125L for indications such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Professor Klaus Dugi, corporate senior vice-president for medicine at Boehringer Ingelheim, said: "Boehringer Ingelheim is delighted to add another promising compound to its development pipeline of drugs for the treatment of respiratory disease, one of its most important therapeutic areas."

Last month, it was announced that the company has formed a new alliance with Polyphor that will allow it to utilise MacroFinder drug discovery technology in order to identify a new series of macrocyclic drug candidates.