BRIEF—Amarin and Mochida collaborate on EPA-based drug products

Irish biopharma company Amarin has entered into a multi-faceted collaboration with Japan’s Mochida focused on the development and commercialization of early-stage drug products and indications based on the omega-3 acid, EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid).

Amarin and Mochida say they are recognized worldwide as the leading, innovation-driven companies committed to the research and development of EPA-based drug products to treat the needs of tens of millions of patients who are at-risk of cardiovascular disease.

Amarin developed and markets Vascepa (icosapent ethyl) capsules in the USA, the first and only US Food and Drug Administration-approved, prescription pure EPA drug product, indicated as an adjunct to diet to reduce triglyceride levels in adult patients with severe (≥500 mg/dL) hypertriglyceridemia.

Mochida is an integrated Japanese pharmaceutical company that developed and markets a prescription pure EPA drug product, Epadel, as a treatment for hyperlipidemia and arteriosclerosis obliterans in Japan.

Mochida sponsored and successfully completed a cardiovascular outcomes trial with Epadel in Japan, JELIS.

JELIS was the world’s first large-scale randomized controlled cardiovascular outcomes trial of a prescription pure EPA drug product and showed beneficial effects of the drug in further reducing cardiovascular events in statin-treated, hypercholesterolemic Japanese patients.