AZ and Mitsubishi partner on diabetic nephropathy
pharmafile | August 20, 2014 | News story | Research and Development, Sales and Marketing | AstraZeneca, BMS, Mitsubishi, cvmd, diabetes, nephropathy
AstraZeneca and Japanese firm Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma Corporation (MTPC) have signed a new three-year research deal in the area of diabetic nephropathy.
The aim of the pact is to bring together the firms’ complementary strengths to identify promising drug candidates. The research collaboration will span from target selection – up to the delivery of small molecule candidate drugs for diabetic nephropathy.
This condition, which is the failure of the kidney function due to diabetes, occurs in around half of patients who have suffered with diabetes for 20 years or more.
It is the leading cause of end stage renal disease which carries significant risk of heart problems and death.
Marcus Schindler, head of CVMD innovative medicines unit at AstraZeneca, says: “Diabetes is a core therapeutic area for AstraZeneca and a key growth platform for the company. With current approaches to diabetic nephropathy resulting in patients needing expensive and limited treatment options, such as dialysis or kidney transplantation, there’s a significant unmet clinical need.
“This collaboration will allow us to focus on early-stage programmes and generate decision-making data faster than working alone, ultimately providing a quicker expansion of our diabetic nephropathy portfolio for the treatment of chronic kidney disease.”
The firms say in a statement that targets from each company’s early research portfolios have already been identified as approaches of common interest, and additional targets may also be included under the collaboration at a later stage.
The research will be performed in parallel at AstraZeneca’s cardiovascular and metabolic disease innovative medicines unit (CVMD iMed) in Mölndal, Sweden, and at MTPC’s facilities in Japan.
The parties believe that the collaboration will yield high quality candidate drugs much faster than working alone.
There is no financial commitment for the research involved and each party will contribute equal resource at their own cost, but no further financial details of the deal have been revealed by either company.
Takashi Kobayashi, division manager of research division at MTPC, says: “MTPC is now focussing its drug discovery research efforts and multifaceted translational research, including collaboration with Kyoto University Hospital and TMK project, to developing new treatments for chronic kidney disease patients.
“We expect the new collaboration with AstraZeneca will strengthen the expertise of both companies in this area and accelerate the delivery of new medicines for patients with diabetic nephropathy.”
AZ’s diabetes business has grown this year after it took full control from previous partner Bristol-Myers Squibb, and is seen as a key growth driver for the firm.
In its latest second-quarter results, AZ said that its diabetes unit grew 128% following the integration of BMS’s assets, as well as seeing a strong US launch of its new type 2 diabetes pill Forxiga (dapagliflozin).
Ben Adams
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