January 5, 2017
By Alex Keown, BioSpace.com Breaking News Staff
SAN DIEGO – Arena Pharmaceuticals is shedding some unwanted weight. The company is selling its weight-loss drug Belviq (lorcaserin) to Eisai Co., Ltd. , which has marketing rights to Belviq throughout much of the world.
Amit Munshi, president and chief executive officer of Arena, said unloading Belviq will allow Arena to focus on its clinical stage programs. With the funding from the sale to Eisai, Arena has a goal of developing “first- or best-in-class assets with our three proprietary compounds, from which we expect results from multiple Phase 2 clinical trials later this year,” Munshi said in a statement.
Under terms of the deal, Eisai will now be responsible for all development and commercialization of Belviq. Eisai will pay Arena $23 million in cash. Arena said it is eligible for royalty payments of 9.5 percent on annual global sales of Belviq, which are expected to be less than or equal to $175 million. The company said it is eligible for royalties of 13.5 percent on global net sales “greater than $175 million but less than or equal to $500 million and 18.5 percent on annual global net sales greater than $500 million.” Additionally, Arena is eligible to receive $26 million in potential sales and regulatory milestones including $25 million upon global net sales reaching $250 million in any 12 month period and $1 million for approval in Brazil, the company said.
In addition to the payments from Eisai, Arena said the sale will allow the company to divert about $80 million it would have spent on Belviq to other projects.
In addition to Etrasimod, which has struggled to find a solid base of prescribers, Arena has a number of proprietary clinical programs, including the recently named Etrasimod (formerly known as APD334). Etrasimod is a next generation, highly specific modulator of Sphingosine 1-Phosphate Subtype 1 aimed at treatment for ulcerative colitis and potentially inflammatory bowel disease. Another drug in its pipeline is Ralinepag (APD811), an agonist of the prostacyclin receptor. Ralinepag is currently in an ongoing Phase II clinical trial for pulmonary arterial hypertension. Arena is also developing APD371, an agonist of the cannabinoid-2 receptor. The investigational drug recently completed a Phase I multiple-ascending dose clinical trial with favorable results, and is under evaluation for pain indications.
Arena also has a number of ongoing collaborations with other companies, $262 million schizophrenia research deal with Boehringer Ingelheim. Under that deal, which was struck in January, the two companies will conduct joint research to identify drug candidates targeting an undisclosed G protein-coupled receptor, which belongs to the group of orphan CNS receptors. An “orphan receptor” is structurally related to a family of proteins that are known to act as functional cell-surface receptors but whose ligand has not yet been identified.Shares of Arena are trading this morning at $1.52, as of 9:59.
