July 6, 2015
By Alex Keown, BioSpace.com Breaking News Staff
FREMONT, Calif. – Novo Nordisk is terminating its 18 month partnership with Zosano Pharma Corporation to use that company’s micro-needle application to deliver glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) analogues for the treatment of type 2 diabetes.
The termination of the collaboration, which had the potential to generate more than $115 million in revenue, was announced this morning. Novo Nordisk paid Zosano $1 million in an upfront payment last year at the beginning of the collaboration. In a statement, Zosano said the agreement termination was related to a “strategic prioritization of NVO‘s research portfolio despite continued progress during the collaboration period.”
Danish-based Novo Nordisk is the world’s largest insulin maker. The company manufactures a number of diabetes treatments, including Victoza, NovoLog and Levemir.
Zosano and Novo Nordisk entered into their collaboration agreement in January 2014 to develop a new transdermal presentation of Novo Nordisk’s proprietary human GLP-1 analogues, also known as Semaglutide, to be administered once weekly using Zosano‘s micro-needle patch system for the treatment of type 2 diabetes. Under terms of the initial agreement Zosano granted Novo Nordisk license to develop and commercialize Novo Nordisk‘s proprietary GLP-1 analogues using the company’s micro-needle patch system. The agreement had the potential to generate more than $115 million in payments from Novo Nordisk to Zosano pending successful commercialization of products with the micro-needle system. Payments were designed to total more than $60 million for the first product and $55 million for each additional product that was approved.
Zosano‘s micro-needle patch delivers therapeutic compounds through the skin and provides systemic drug delivery in a system designed to be needle-free and pain-free system. The delivery system has been tested more than 400 patients with over 30,000 patches successfully applied to humans in Phase I and Phase II clinical studies, the company said.
Zosano said all technology rights licensed to Novo Nordisk that were related to the GLP-1 products will revert back to the company upon final termination of the agreement.
In April Novo Nordisk announced its Saxend, a once-daily glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonist for chronic weight management in adults, was available for sale in the United States. Obese individuals often develop type 2 diabetes.
In June Zosano completed enrollment in a Phase II clinical trial of ZP-Glucagon for severe hypoglycemia in diabetics, delivered through its investigational patch treatment. The trial is designed to investigate the safety and pharmacokinetics, as well as the efficacy to reverse insulin-induced hypoglycemia, of ZP-Glucagon versus intramuscular injections at two different dose levels. Adult participants diagnosed with type 1 diabetes were enrolled at two clinical sites, the company said.
Also in June, Zosano said it secured $15 million in debt financing through Hercules Technology Growth Capital, Inc., which will be used to pay off $11.4 million owed to BioMed Ventures under a 2012 promissory note. Vikram Lamba, chief executive officer of Zosano, said the financing will be used to improve its “better align the company’s cash runway with its strategic plans.”
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