**Roche and Zealand Pharma have entered into a partnership worth up to $5.3bn to advance Zealand’s mid-stage obesity candidate petrelintide.**
The exclusive collaboration and licensing agreement will see the companies co-develop and co-commercialise the long-acting amylin analog as both a standalone therapy and as a fixed-dose combination with Roche’s dual GLP-1/GIP receptor agonist CT-388.
Petrelintide is currently in phase 2 development and available clinical data suggests it could offer improved tolerability compared to current weight management treatments, the companies said.
The partners will co-commercialise petrelintide in the US and Europe, while Roche will hold exclusive rights to commercialise the drug in the rest of the world.
In exchange, Zealand will receive upfront cash payments of $1.65bn and will be eligible for development milestones of $1.2bn and sales-based milestones of $2.4bn.
Zealand will also pay Roche $350m, off-settable against milestone payments, for the petrelintide/CT-388 fixed-dose combination or next-generation petrelintide combination products being pursued under the collaboration.
Roche’s chief executive officer, Teresa Graham, said “We are excited to collaborate with Zealand Pharma and develop this promising therapy, which we hope will provide people living with obesity and related co-morbidities a new treatment option.
“… By combining petrelintide with our pharmaceuticals portfolio and with our diagnostics expertise in cardiovascular and metabolic diseases, we are aiming to transform the standard of care and positively impact patients’ lives.”
Also commenting on the agreement, Zealand’s president and chief executive officer, Adam Steensberg, said: “We strongly believe that petrelintide holds potential as a foundational therapy for weight management, addressing unmet medical needs among the majority of people living with overweight and obesity, both as stand-alone therapy and in combination with other agents. This collaboration with Roche is a step change to realise this vision…”
Roche gained access to CT-388 in January last year, when it completed its $3.1bn [acquisition](https://pmlive.com/pharma_news/roche_to_acquire_carmot_therapeutics_in_deal_worth_up_to_3-1bn_1504543/) of Carmot Therapeutics.
Alongside CT-388, the deal gave Roche a portfolio of incretin-based therapies for diabetes and obesity, including CT-868, a dual GLP-1/GIP receptor agonist in mid-stage development as a once-daily injection to treat type 1 diabetes patients who are overweight or obese; and CT-996, a once-daily oral, small molecule GLP-1 receptor agonist currently being evaluated in a phase 1 trial as a treatment for obesity in patients with and without type 2 diabetes.