Forest Laboratories is pouring $50 million into a deal with TransTech Pharma intended to bring new glucose-lowering diabetes drugs to market. Combined with milestone payments, the agreement could yield $1.1 billion for TransTech in total. Forest will also pay TransTech royalties on worldwide product sales and cover all development and commercialization costs.

 

TransTech Pharma, based in High Point, North Carolina, retains the rights to the Middle East and North Africa.

 

“We believe this novel class of compounds has the potential to be a major therapeutic advance in the treatment of diabetes," says TransTech CEO and founder Adnan Mjalli.

 

The small molecule compounds covered by the agreement rely on liver-selective Glucokinase Activators, which represent a novel class of glucose-lowering agents for the treatment of diabetes, Forest says.

 

Glucokinase Activators, such as TransTech's lead diabetes molecule, TTP399, help lower blood glucose in diabetic patients in large part by inducing glucose-stimulated insulin release in the pancreas and by inducing glycogen formation and glucose breakdown in the liver.

 

Amgen and Array BioPharma inked their own deal for a small-molecule glucokinase activator program in December of last year, creating an exclusive worldwide pact that came with an upfront payment of $60 million for Array and potential additional milestone payments.

 

In April, Forest abandoned its marketing rights to a diabetes mellitus drug being developed by Phenomix just as positive late-stage data on the drug emerged, leaving Phenomix looking for a new partner.