Boehringer Ingelheim and Zealand Pharma Advance to Phase 2 Clinical Testing in NASH and Obesity
13.4.2021 15:00:00 EEST | Business Wire | Press release
Boehringer Ingelheim and Zealand Pharma A/S (“Zealand”) (NASDAQ: ZEAL) announced the initiation of two Phase 2 trials of the GLP-1/glucagon dual agonist BI 456906 for adults who are overweight or obese and for adults with non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). The compound was in-licensed from Zealand in 2011 and is being investigated in an ongoing Phase 2 study in people with type 2 diabetes mellitus. The once-weekly therapy may offer additional benefits on both chronic weight management, and NASH improvement and prevention of the progression to cirrhosis compared to currently available treatments with mono GLP-1 agonist compounds. BI 456906 is part of Boehringer Ingelheim’s growing portfolio in the obesity and NASH disease areas.
“Obesity and NASH are areas of high unmet medical need, with limited approved treatments currently available. They are associated with lower quality of life and increased mortality,” explains Prof. Arun J. Sanyal, Professor of Medicine, Physiology and Molecular Pathology at Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine in Richmond, Virginia. “I hope that this new approach will bring a much-needed treatment option for HCPs and people afflicted with obesity or NASH.”
Boehringer Ingelheim and Zealand have a fruitful longstanding partnership, bringing together Zealand’s expertise in the discovery of innovative peptide-based medicines with Boehringer Ingelheim’s expertise in the research and development of novel medicines for cardiometabolic diseases. “We are very excited to see the initiation of Phase 2 trials of BI 456906 for obesity and NASH,” said Adam Steensberg, Executive Vice President and Chief Medical Officer at Zealand Pharma. “By combining GLP-1 and glucagon agonism mechanistically, we believe our dual agonist has the potential to achieve increased weight loss, via improvement of the patient’s metabolism, and also has potential to alleviate NASH by reducing upstream steatosis.”
“Our cardiometabolic research and development is focusing on discovering novel treatments for obesity and non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), to meet the large unmet need among these groups,” explains Waheed Jamal, MD, Head of Cardiovascular, Metabolic and Respiratory Medicine at Boehringer Ingelheim. “We are exploring a number of unique approaches with great potential to help people living with obesity or NASH. We believe dual agonists are next generation drug candidates with a potential for higher efficacy in weight loss and NASH improvement/cirrhosis prevention.”
Under the terms of the GLP-1/glucagon dual agonist licensing agreement, Boehringer Ingelheim funds all research, development and commercialization activities. Zealand is entitled to receive up to EUR 345 million in outstanding milestone payments. No milestone payments are due with the initiations of these Phase 2 studies. The agreement also carries high-single digit to low-double digit percentage royalties on global sales.
Please click on the following link for ‘Notes to Editors’ and ‘References’:
http://www.boehringer-ingelheim.com/press-release/clinical-phase2-trials-nash-and-obesity
To view this piece of content from cts.businesswire.com, please give your consent at the top of this page.
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210413005636/en/
Contact information
Boehringer Ingelheim
Dr. Birgit Leimer
Product Communications Manager
Boehringer Ingelheim Corporate Center GmbH
Media + PR
E-Mail: press@boehringer-ingelheim.com
Zealand Pharma
David Rosen
Argot Partners
E-Mail: media@zealandpharma.com
About Business Wire
For more than 50 years, Business Wire has been the global leader in press release distribution and regulatory disclosure.
Subscribe to releases from Business Wire
Subscribe to all the latest releases from Business Wire by registering your e-mail address below. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Latest releases from Business Wire
SWISSto12 and Mitsubishi Electric Corporation Announce Strategic Partnership14.9.2026 10:00:00 EEST | Press release
SWISSto12 today announced a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Mitsubishi Electric Corporation (MELCO) (TOKYO: 6503) to pursue joint opportunities on advanced payloads, radio frequency (RF) products, and market development in Japan and the APAC region. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260914982179/en/ Masahiko Arai, Executive Officer and Group President, Defense & Space Systems, Mitsubishi Electric, and Dr. Emile de Rijk, Chief Executive Officer, SWISSto12 Joint opportunities will leverage MELCO’s extensive satellite system expertise and integration capabilities together with SWISSto12’s proprietary 3D-printing designs and processes that form the foundation of its next-generation payloads—smaller, lighter, highly performant, yet built in materially shorter timeframes. The MoU underscores growing market adoption of SWISSto12’s HummingLink payload technology that leverages 3D-printing, with more than 2,000 pr
U.S. FDA Accepts New Drug Application Under Priority Review for Takeda’s Zasocitinib in Moderate-to-Severe Plaque Psoriasis, with Potential to Redefine Oral Treatment Expectations14.9.2026 10:00:00 EEST | Press release
Takeda (TSE:4502/NYSE:TAK) announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) accepted its New Drug Application (NDA) under Priority Review for zasocitinib (TAK-279) for the treatment of adults with moderate-to-severe plaque psoriasis. Zasocitinib is an investigational, next-generation, highly selective and potent oral tyrosine kinase 2 (TYK2) inhibitor, which demonstrated rapid, durable and consistent skin clearance in Phase 3 plaque psoriasis studies.1-3 Addressing unmet needs in psoriasis treatment “Despite progress in psoriasis care, there remains a need for highly effective oral therapies that also address the diverse and often challenging manifestations of psoriasis, including involvement of high-impact sites like the scalp,” said Andy Plump, M.D., Ph.D., president of R&D at Takeda. “Our Phase 3 data demonstrated rapid and durable skin clearance across various patient types and in high-impact and hard-to-treat areas. Based on the results across nearly 3,000 patients, zaso
Thales Builds Cryptographic Security for the Age of AI and Post-Quantum Computing14.9.2026 10:00:00 EEST | Press release
According to the 2026 Thales Data Threat Report, the threat of Harvest Now, Decrypt Later (HNDL) attacks was the top-cited risk, with 59% of organizations reporting that they are prototyping and evaluating post-quantum cryptography (PQC) algorithms to prepare for the quantum era. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260804748922/en/ ©Thales To help organizations turn this readiness into deployment,Thales, a global leader in advanced technologies, today announced the launch of Luna 8, its next-generation hardware security module. Designed for the transition to post-quantum cryptography, Luna 8 enables organizations to securely store, protect, and manage cryptographic keys with market-leading performance, scalability, and speed. As organizations face growing pressure from emerging quantum threats, expanding AI workloads and evolving stringent regulatory requirements, Luna 8 provides the performance, security and cryp
Focused Support Launches Cavok STRIKE to Expand Link-16 Participation Across the Joint Force14.9.2026 08:00:00 EEST | Press release
Focused Support LLC today announced the launch of Cavok STRIKE, an integrated software capability that expands the Link-16 tactical battlespace picture by enabling additional operational platforms to participate in the Link-16 network. Modern battlefields have increasing numbers of unmanned systems, sensors, and supporting platforms operating throughout the joint battlespace. The rapid proliferation of Group 1, 2, and 3 UAS, including both expendable and recoverable systems, has created a growing need to integrate these assets into the broader tactical network. Many of these platforms provide operationally relevant information but have historically remained outside the Link-16 network due to limitations in size, weight, power, platform integration complexity, or acquisition cost. Cavok STRIKE addresses this gap by enabling platforms to participate in the Link-16 network as non-command-and-control participants. This allows those platforms to interoperate with traditional Link-16 platfor
Fujirebio Expands Access to Blood-based Neurology Testing in Brazil with ANVISA Market Authorization for Lumipulse® G NfL Blood and Lumipulse G pTau 217 Plasma14.9.2026 08:00:00 EEST | Press release
H.U. Group Holdings Inc. and its wholly owned subsidiary Fujirebio today announced that the Brazilian Health Regulatory Agency (ANVISA) has granted market authorization for the Lumipulse G NfL Blood and Lumipulse G pTau 217 Plasma assays for use on the fully automated LUMIPULSE® G immunoassay platform in Brazil. “ANVISA authorization of the Lumipulse G NfL Blood and Lumipulse G pTau 217 Plasma assays marks another important step in our mission to expand access to reliable, clinically meaningful blood-based biomarkers for clinicians and patients worldwide,” said Christiaan De Wilde, CEO of Fujirebio Europe N.V. “By making both neurological biomarker assays available to laboratories on a single, fully automated platform, we are helping support more informed clinical decision-making across a broad range of neurological conditions and throughout the diagnostic pathway.” The Brazilian ANVISA authorizations are based on the already CE marked in vitro diagnostics (IVD) approvals of these two
In our pressroom you can read all our latest releases, find our press contacts, images, documents and other relevant information about us.
Visit our pressroom