Novo Nordisk enters agreement with Antyra

Novo Nordisk has announced that it has entered into a global licensing agreement with Antyra.

The collaboration is set to see the working on insulin-like growth factor (IGF) related antagonists for the treatment of cancer and other diseases.

IGF, a natural growth promoting entity, has been hailed as a potential anti-cancer therapy for the treatment of many solid tumours.

An increasing amount of epidemiologic data also links elevated serum IGF levels with the risk of a number of different cancers including prostate, pancreatic, colorectal, lung and breast.

It is additionally becoming clear such a system may mediate the effect of a number of well-established cancer risk factors.

Dr Neil Goldstein, Antyra’s president and chief scientific officer, said that the company was very happy to be working alongside Novo Nordisk.

He added: “We believe that the company has generated some exciting data with several of the IGF-1R antagonists and they represent a novel and potentially effective clinical strategy for the treatment of pancreatic and other cancers.”

Based in Denmark, Novo Nordisk has production facilities in six countries, with affiliates or offices in 80 countries.

Employing 26,553 people – as of June 2008 – approximately 49 per cent of the workforce are based in Denmark.