AstraZeneca announced that MedImmune, its biologics research and development arm, and NGM Biopharmaceuticals, Inc. entered into an exclusive agreement to discover, develop drugs from NGM’s enteroendocrine cell (EEC) program for the treatment of type 2 diabetes and obesity.
Medimmune is based in the Washington, D.C. area. NGN is a privately held company based in California. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Medimmune is the focus of efforts to build AstraZeneca’s drug development pipeline and will see modest gains in employment as AstraZeneca staffing in northern Delaware drops by 1,200.
NGM has established a proprietary platform capable of isolating and analyzing EECs in order to identify hormones that are potentially linked to the metabolic effects of bariatric surgery and serve as potential targets for the treatment of diseases with links to obesity and diabetes.
MedImmune and NGM will jointly advance first-in-class peptide and antibody drug candidates based on the discovered EEC hormones. MedImmune will have the option to license in these EEC targets, and will be responsible for the global development, manufacture and commercialization of compounds resulting from the collaboration.
“We believe that hormones found in the gastrointestinal tract can play an important role in resolving diabetes after bariatric surgery. Through NGM’s innovative research in metabolic disease, we believe our collaboration could lead to potential innovative medicines for diabetes and obesity that will make a difference in patients’ lives,” said Cristina Rondinone, head of Cardiovascular and Metabolic Disease Innovative Medicines Unit, MedImmune. “Our partnership with NGM complements AstraZeneca’s existing small molecule and biologics portfolio in cardiovascular and metabolic disease, one of our core therapy areas.”
Under the terms of the agreement, MedImmune will make an upfront payment and provide NGM research funding over the course of the collaboration. If certain development, regulatory and commercial milestones are achieved, NGM will be entitled to receive various payments, as well as royalties on worldwide product sales.
