DUBLIN – For quite some time, cardiometabolic disease has been largely off the map for most small biotechs and for the venture capital investors that support them. Is that situation about to change? Maybe, maybe not was the mixed message arising from a Bio-Europe Spring 2020 virtual panel discussion on cardiometabolic disease.
Kintai Therapeutics Inc. CEO, president and board member Paul-Peter Tak told BioWorld that the company aims to reach the clinic in the first quarter of next year with obesity agent KTX-0200, which has begun IND-enabling studies after showing sustained weight loss and improved markers of health in preclinical experiments.
HONG KONG – Belgian drugmaker Janssen Pharmaceutica NV, a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, has decided to return the rights of diabetic obesity treatment HM-12525A to Hanmi Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. The South Korean company said the decision followed phase II testing by Janssen, which showed the drug achieved the weight loss endpoint but didn't reach Janssen's internal criteria for blood glucose control in obese patients with diabetes.
