Licensed IP includes GLP-1, PYY and oxyntomodulin analogue patent portfolio, pre-clinical and clinical data packages
Zihipp Limited, a UK-based biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of peptide hormones for the treatment of diabetes and obesity, announces it has signed exclusive license and option agreements with Imperial College London.
The exclusive license includes the pre-clinical and clinical data packages for two oxyntomodulin and PYY analogue programmes which have successfully completed phase I clinical trials, along with several GLP-1, PYY and oxyntomodulin discovery programmes.
The company has also been granted an extensive exclusive license to multiple families of patents and pending applications covering oxyntomodulin and PYY peptides analogues developed in the Bloom laboratory at Imperial College.
Additionally, the company has entered into a partnership with Imperial College under which it has an exclusive option to receive further IP developed in the field.
The products address the global pandemics of obesity and diabetes, linked conditions which affect 1 in 11 individuals worldwide and account for 12% of global healthcare expenditure. Diabetes is closely linked to obesity, and type 2 diabetes can be effectively treated through weight reduction. At present, diabetes affects over 435 million people worldwide, and its prevalence is growing.
Obesity also affects a significant proportion of the world’s population – one recent estimate suggests a third of the US adult population is obese. Though weight reduction is an effective treatment for diabetes, it is difficult to achieve through calorie-controlled dieting as patients have difficulty complying with such regimes.
Weight loss interventions have therefore become well-established and include gastro-intestinal bypass surgery, and pharmaceutical approaches using hormone treatments e.g. injectable glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) analogues. In both cases increased satiety hormones reduce food intake, however, gastric bypass surgery is expensive and invasive, and can lead to serious complications, while GLP-1s only produce limited weight loss.
The licensed programmes have been demonstrated in in vivo and human studies, and in vitro models, to be more potent and longer-lasting than marketed GLP-1 products, allowing patients to lose significant weight without surgery.
Professor Sir Stephen Bloom FRS, Chairman of Zihipp commented, “We are delighted to have secured the exclusive rights to these exciting new treatments and look to their continued successful development and future patient benefit.”