Islet and BHV sign licensing agreement for diabetes drug in development

Metabolic biopharma specialist Islet Sciences (OTCQB: ISLT) says that its merger partner, Brighthaven Ventures (BHV Pharma), has entered into an exclusive licensing agreement for its SGLT2 inhibitor, remogliflozin etabonate, with Libbs Farmaceutica, a leading Brazilian pharmaceutical company.

Libbs will have exclusive rights to develop and commercialize remogliflozin in select territories in Latin America, including Brazil. Under the terms of the agreement, Libbs will make an upfront payment of $1.5 million and fund a substantial portion of BHV’s Phase IIb development of remogliflozin for the treatment of type 2 diabetes, which BHV expects to initiate in late 2014.

Libbs will also be responsible for all development, regulatory and commercialization activities in the licensed territories. In addition, BHV and Libbs have agreed to a royalty and profit-share mechanism under which BHV will receive a percentage of either net sales or net profit in the licensed territories. Additional terms of the agreement were not disclosed.