Lilly Liver-Treatment Candidate Meets Clinical Targets

   By Bowdeya Tweh 
 

Eli Lilly & Co. (LLY) said Wednesday results from a late-stage trial of a liver-cancer treatment met clinical targets, moving the company toward making regulatory submissions for the drug later this year.

Indianapolis-based Lilly said its study of Cyramza, or ramucirumab, as a second-line treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma met its primary endpoint of overall survival as well as a secondary endpoint of progression-free survival. Studies of Cyramza have enrolled more than 12,000 patients in more than 70 trials world-wide, Lilly said.

Lilly said it plans to start regulatory submissions for Cyramza in mid-2018. Liver cancer is the sixth most common cancer world-wide and the second-leading cause of cancer-related death, the company said.

Lilly also said Wednesday it has reached a deal with privately held biopharmaceutical company to develop therapies to potentially treat type 1 diabetes. In the partnership between Lilly and Cambridge, Mass.-based Sigilon Therapeutics, Sigilon will develop products made of a type of stem cell that can restore insulin production over sustained periods, without triggering an immune reaction, Lilly said.

Sigilon will receive an upfront payment of $63 million and Lilly will make an undisclosed equity investment in Sigilon. Sigilon will be eligible to receive up to $410 million based on reaching certain development and commercialization milestones. Sigilon could also receive royalties on future product sales, Lilly said.

Lilly said the Sigilon transaction will dent earnings by 5 cents a share in the second quarter.

Write to Bowdeya Tweh at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 04, 2018 09:04 ET (13:04 GMT)

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