Takeda Licenses Amylin Obesity Drugs

Takeda Pharmaceutical is licensing two obesity drugs in development at Amylin Pharmaceuticals. For a $75 million up-front payment and more than $1 billion in potential milestone payments, the Japanese firm gains access to pramlintide/metreleptin and davalintide, peptides in Phase II clinical trials as obesity treatments. Already approved to control glucose levels, pramlin­tide caused diabetics to lose 6 lb on average in a clinical trial. Researchers have struggled to find a safe and effective weight-loss pill. Last year, Merck & Co., Pfizer, Solvay, and Sanofi-Aventis all pulled obesity drugs from late-stage clinical studies.