Exelixis/Daiichi Sankyo ask Japanese regulators for green light on hypertension drug; Bristol-Myers Squibb licenses GPCR tech from Domain Therapeutics
→ San Francisco’s Exelixis $EXEL — and its partner Daiichi Sankyo — has asked Japanese regulators for the OK to sell their investigational hypertension drug called esaxerenone. The two companies identified the compound during a research collaboration that started way back in 2006. Filing for the application gets Exelixis a $20 million milestone payment from Daiichi. As esaxerenone advances, Exelixis is eligible for more future milestones and double-digit royalties on sales. Esaxerenone is an oral selective blocker of the mineralocorticoid receptor (MR), a nuclear hormone receptor implicated in a variety of cardiovascular and metabolic diseases. MR blockers can be used to treat hypertension and congestive heart failure due to their vascular protective effects, the companies said in a statement. This new regulatory application for the drug is based on results of Phase III studies, including a randomized, double-blind, three-arm parallel group comparison study looking at esaxerenone versus eplerenone in patients with hypertension. Top-line results for that study were published in September 2017, and Daiichi plans to publish the full study results at a future scientific meeting.
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