Takeda and Amylin to collaborate on anti-obesity drugs

Takeda has signed an agreement with fellow pharmaceutical firm Amylin for the joint development of products to treat obesity and its related conditions.

The firms will work together as part of the worldwide exclusive license, development and commercialisation agreement to hone products from Amylin’s pipeline, including pramlintide/metreleptin and davalintide, which are compounds currently in their trial phases.

Amylin will receive a one-time upfront payment of $75 million (45.7 million pounds) from Takeda and is also eligible for additional sums that could exceed $1 billion upon achieving various development, commercialisation and sales-based milestones.

Yasuchika Hasegawa, president and chief executive officer of Takeda, commented: “Both Amylin and Takeda have extensive experience in the diabetes and metabolic disease area and this collaboration should allow us to more quickly bring promising new treatments to patients in need.”

Last month, Takeda won the Industrial Design Promotion Organisation’s Good Design Award 2009 for the blister card packaging of its Benet 17.5 mg tablets.