Milestone payment
UK drug development company Alizyme plc said it is to receive a $3 million milestone payment from Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Ltd, following the Japanese company’s decision to commence a Phase III clinical trial in Japan of Alizyme’s lipase inhibitor cetilistat in the treatment of obesity.
The decision comes after positive results in the Phase II trial of the drug, in which 450 diabetic and obese patients showed significant weight loss and improvement in glycaemic control over 6 months’ treatment. There were also improvements in other metabolic syndrome parameters.
Following receipt of the current milestone of $3 million, Alizyme will have received four payments totalling $10 million since the agreement between the two companies was signed in 2003. Cambridge-based Alizyme is entitled to further payments of up to $32 million in future milestones.
The milestone payment will come as a relief to hard-up Alizyme, which earlier this month pared its operations to the bone to eke out its cash resources as it looks for a US commercialisation partner for cetilistat.
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