Alizé seals diabetes collaboration with Lilly

Collaboration | Licensing

Metabolic diseases specialist Alizé Pharma has agreed a research collaboration and license option agreement with Eli Lilly and Company for its AZP-01 programme, in which it is developing ghrelin agonists for the treatment of Type II diabetes.

Lilly will pay an undisclosed upfront fee in return for an exclusive option to license the programme according to predefined terms. No other terms were disclosed.

Alizé of Lyon, France, says preclinical and preliminary clinical data suggest AZP-01 works through a novel mechanism of action that includes glucose and lipid-lowering effects, and also influences insulin-producing beta cells and increases sensitivity to insulin. As a result the compound may have the potential not only to control the disease but also to have a positive impact on cardiovascular risk factors such as obesity, dyslipidemia and impaired vascular remodelling.

“We are very pleased with this first agreement with Lilly, a recognised leader in the field of diabetes,” said Alizé Pharma president and founder Thierry Abribat. “It gives us access to Lilly’s proven expertise in developing first-in-class molecules, while leveraging our resources.”