Boehringer Ingelheim and Lilly ally on diabetes research

Boehringer Ingelheim and Lilly have agreed a major new research partnership to develop a series of new diabetes treatments.

The global alliance will see the two pharmaceutical companies jointly develop and commercialise Boehringer Ingelheim's investigational oral diabetes compounds linagliptin and BI10773, as well as Lilly's basal insulin analogues LY2605541 and LY2963016.

It will also include an option to co-develop an anti-TGF-beta monoclonal antibody created by Lilly.

This agreement will see the firms share responsibility for research funding and potential profits and is designed to combine the expertise of both companies to address a major worldwide medical need.

Professor Andreas Barner, chairman of the board of managing directors of Boehringer Ingelheim, said the alliance has been formed "at a time point when we at Boehringer Ingelheim are entering another new therapeutic area with innovative compounds out of our own research and development".

Last month, Boehringer Ingelheim announced that its research partnership with Orexo has yielded a new development candidate drug with potential efficacy against pain and inflammatory diseases.