Poxel and ENYO sign licensing agreement for farnesoid X receptor agonists

Type 2 diabetes biopharma company Poxel (Euronext: POXEL) and ENYO Pharma, newly-formed and focusing on viral infections, have signed a license agreement under which ENYO will gain access to Poxel’s farnesoid X receptor agonist compounds.

This is for infection-related indications with Poxel retaining rights for cardiovascular and metabolic indications among others. Financial terms have not been disclosed. Farnesoid X receptor is also known as bile acid receptor. It is a member of a nuclear receptor superfamily and works in multiple metabolic pathways, especially in bile acids in the liver and intestine. The Inserm team founder of ENYO has identified farnesoid X receptor as a direct regulator of hepatitis B virus replication and has shown the dependency of the virus life cycle on the bile acids pathway.

Thomas Kuhn, chief executive of Poxel, said: “Poxel has advanced its pipeline based on both our internal expertise in metabolism and cellular bioenergetics and the clinical and preclinical programs we inherited as a spin-out from Merck Serono. The breadth of therapeutic applications and opportunities represented in this pipeline allows us to out-license compounds for indications outside of our therapeutic focus, thereby bringing in additional revenues and broadening our network of partners.”