AstraZeneca Reaches Obesity Drug Deal; Imfinzi Combination Meets Main Goal In Liver Cancer Trial

(RTTNews) - AstraZeneca Plc. (AZN.L, AZN) and Eccogene have reached an exclusive license agreement for ECC5004, an investigational oral once-daily glucagon-like peptide 1 receptor agonist (GLP-1RA) for the treatment of obesity, type-2 diabetes and other cardiometabolic conditions, the British drug major said in a statement on Thursday. As per the agreement, AstraZeneca is granted exclusive global rights for the development and commercialization of Eccogene's ECC5004 small molecule GLP-1RA for any indication in all territories except China, where Eccogene has the right to co-develop and co-commercialize in China alongside AstraZeneca.

As per the terms of the agreement, Eccogene will receive an initial upfront payment of $185 million. In addition, Eccogene will also receive up to an additional $1.825 billion in future clinical, regulatory, and commercial milestones and tiered royalties on product net sales.

In a separate press release, AstraZeneca said results from the EMERALD-1 Phase III trial showed that the company's Imfinzi or durvalumab in combination with transarterial chemoembolisation and bevacizumab demonstrated a statistically significant and clinically meaningful improvement in the primary endpoint of progression-free survival versus transarterial chemoembolisation alone in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma eligible for embolisation. The trial continues to follow the secondary endpoint of overall survival.

The safety profiles for Imfinzi and transarterial chemoembolisation plus bevacizumab were consistent with the known profile of each medicine, and there were no new safety findings.

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