Novo Nordisk A/S NVO has entered a development and license agreement with Emisphere Technologies, Inc. to develop and commercialize oral formulations of four classes of its molecules targeting major metabolic disorders, using Emisphere's oral Eligen technology.
Terms of the Agreement
Novo Nordisk holds the exclusive right and the non-exclusive right to develop candidates in three molecule classes and the fourth molecule class, respectively. The company will be solely responsible for the development and commercialization of all candidates.
The agreement provides Emisphere with an upfront licensing fee worth $5 million. Emisphere is entitled to receive up to $62.5 million and up to $20 million as development and sales milestone payments for each exclusively licensed molecule classes and for the non-exclusively licensed molecule class, respectively. Moreover, Emisphere is also entitled to receive royalties on product sales.
Novo Nordisk was granted the option to obtain exclusive and non-exclusive rights to develop and commercialize oral formulations using Eligen technology for additional molecules for the treatment of diabetes, obesity, and other therapeutic areas. Selecting this option would lead additional payments to Emisphere of up to $62.5 million and up to $20 million as development and sales milestone for the each additional exclusively licensed molecule classes and for the additional non-exclusively licensed molecule class, respectively. Emisphere would also receive royalties on sales.
Apart from the abovementioned agreement, both the companies amended the GLP-1 (semaglutide) license agreement. Under the amended agreement, Novo Nordisk will pay $9 million (previously $10 million) as a prepayment of a product development milestone in exchange for a reduction in future royalty payments.
We note that, Novo Nordisk has a license agreement with Emisphere to develop and commercialize oral formulations of Novo Nordisk's proprietary GLP-1 receptor agonists using the Eligen technology for the treatment of patients with type 2 diabetes.
We remind investors that in Dec 2014, Novo Nordisk entered a collaboration and licensing agreement with Xencor, Inc. XNCR to jointly discover novel biologic candidates using Xencor's XmAb bispecific and immune inhibitor technologies.
Other companies targeting metabolic disorder treatment include Pfizer Inc. PFE and Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson JNJ.
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