Lilly And Boehringer Ingelheim Revise Diabetes Alliance
Eli Lilly & Co. with its partner Boehringer Ingelheim announced that the companies have made changes to their diabetes alliance in order to focus more on launching products.
BI and Lilly first inked their deal in 2011 to jointly develop and market diabetes drugs in over 50 countries. Lilly said they will revise the operational and financial structure of the partnership in certain countries. Under the revised terms of the agreement, the partners will continue co-promotion in 17 countries representing 90 percent of the alliance’s market opportunity. BI and Lilly will then exclusively market the respective drugs they brought to the partnership in the rest of the countries included in their agreement.
Dr Ulrich Drees, corporate SVP of International Project Management at Boehringer Ingelheim, said, “As our alliance continues to evolve, and with more medicines receiving approval by regulators, we have determined that enhancements are needed to reduce operational complexities in certain countries around the world. By continuing our work under this revised model, our companies can better focus on the important task of delivering innovative solutions to patients.”
The companies will continue to work together in these countries: U.S., U.K., Japan, China, South Korea, Taiwan, Germany, Italy, Spain, France, Ireland, Portugal, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, and Mexico.
“Lilly and Boehringer Ingelheim have a highly successful alliance. In less than four years, our companies have worked to develop and introduce several new important treatments for diabetes,” said Enrique Conterno, President of Lilly Diabetes.
The alliance has launched three drugs for diabetes to date. These are Trajenta (linagliptin), Jardiance (empagliflozin), and Jentadueto (linagliptin/metformin HCI). An additional insulin glargine product has received approval in the EU and tentative approval in the U.S. The companies are currently developing other investigational treatments, including fixed-dose combinations.
The revised changes to Boehringer Ingelheim and Eli Lilly’s agreement will take effect on the first day of 2015.