Transition: Lilly Not To Advance Diabetes Drug Candidate TT401 To Phase 3

(RTTNews) - Transition Therapeutics Inc. (TTHI, TTH.TO), a biopharmaceutical development company, announced Monday that it has received notification that Eli Lilly and Co. (LLY) will not elect to advance diabetes drug candidate, TT401 into Phase 3 development.

Under the companies' collaboration agreement, all TT401 development and commercialization rights will be transferred to Transition.

Transition said it is unencumbered to advance TT401 on its own or with a third party.

The royalty that Transition is eligible to receive on sales of related Lilly compounds remains unaffected. Going forward, Lilly will be eligible to receive a royalty on future TT401 sales and a royalty on TT401 non-royalty income.

TT401 is a once-weekly administered oxyntomodulin analog, with dual agonist activity on the GLP1 and Glucagon receptors. It is the most clinically advanced drug candidate among the new class of GLP1-glucagon receptor dual agonists.

The company noted that the product profile for this class of diabetes drug candidates is to provide type 2 diabetes individuals with blood-glucose control and greater weight loss than GLP1 single agonists.

In the recently completed Phase 2 study of 420 type 2 diabetes individuals, the highest dose of TT401 once-weekly administered peptide demonstrated significantly superior weight loss to currently approved extended release exenatide and placebo after 12 and 24 weeks of treatment.

Tony Cruz, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Transition, said, "The Phase 2 study demonstrated that TT401 has a very competitive product profile as a diabetes therapeutic and was superior to approved exenatide extended release on weight loss."