Roche licenses Ipsen diabetes drug

Roche has exercised its option to license diabetes drug BIM 51077 from French biotech Ipsen. The deal is worth up to €229 million, with €59 million in up front payments and an additional €170 million in milestones, not including royalties. "This is a nice addition to Roche's pipeline," analyst Karl Heinz Koch told MarketWatch. "Although the drug's a bit late, the diabetes market is large enough to accommodate more than just one product." Potential competitors include Eli Lilly's Byetta Eli Lilly's and Novo Nordisk's liraglutide, both of which are years ahead of BIM 51077 in development. Diabetes drugs represent a hot area with an annual market that is expected to climb from $15 billion to about $25 billion by 2011.

- see the MarketWatch report [1] for more

PLUS: Ipsen and California-based Tercica have announced that they will collaborate on endocrinology programs. The companies will cross-license several products and Ipsen will acquire 25 percent of Tercica for €62 million. Release [2]