Boehringer Hooks Up With Arena In CNS
This article was originally published in Scrip
Executive Summary
Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH has agreed to pay up to $262m in milestones to Arena Pharmaceuticals, Inc. under a new R&D agreement. The two will jointly research and develop CNS drugs against an undisclosed G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) whose ligand has not been identified. Arena will share internally discovered compounds and IP for the CNS receptor, and use technology it has developed to discover drugs targeting GPCRs even when their natural ligand is not known. Such receptors are known as "orphan GPCRs", and being able to analyze these as well as GPCRs with known ligands increases the chances of finding new therapies. BI hopes the alliance with Arena will lead to new treatments for psychiatric diseases such as schizophrenia. The German firm's only marketed CNS drug is Mirapex (pramipexole) for Parkinson's Disease, but it recently extended its R&D efforts in CNS beyond degenerative nerve diseases into psychiatric diseases.
You may also be interested in...
20 Voices: What Does 2024 Hold For Biopharma?
20 executives in the biopharma industry outline their view of key trends this year. A selection of commentary from a broad industry survey by Scrip.
Scrip Asks…What Does 2024 Hold For Biopharma? Part 6: Therapeutic Area Advances
More than 100 biopharma executives and experts told Scrip their predictions for therapeutic area advances in the coming year. The recent commercial success of GLP-1s in diabetes and obesity and their potential in further disease areas fuelled excitement around the metabolic space. Expectations were also positive in neurology following the launch of Leqembi for Alzheimer’s disease in 2023, while the multiple opportunities to improve cancer treatment kept oncology top of the pile overall.
Scrip Asks…What Does 2024 Hold For Biopharma? Part 5: Clinical Trial Trends
Some 50 experts and executives in the biopharma sector shared their views on the major trends they expect to see driving change in the clinical trials arena in 2024. Artificial intelligence applied to clinical development, greater use of remote monitoring and increased patient diversity in trials were key themes.