PeptiDream, a Tokyo-based pharmaceutical company, and Ipsen, a global specialty-driven pharmaceutical group, have expanded the scope of their April research collaboration and license option agreement to discover, evaluate, potentially develop and launch therapeutic peptides to treat serious medical conditions in areas of therapeutic focus for Ipsen. The existing collaboration, which combines PeptiDream’s proprietary Peptide Discovery Platform System (PDPS) with Ipsen’s experience in peptide drug discovery and pharmaceutical R&D, will now be extended in scope to enable further therapeutic peptide candidates to enter R&D for additional serious endocrinologic disease.

Financial terms of the expanded agreement were not disclosed. In exchange for worldwide rights to each therapeutic peptide resulting from the collaboration, Ipsen will pay all R&D and commercialization costs. PeptiDream will receive royalties on worldwide sales or have the right to opt-in at predefined stages to support Japan development costs of each new candidate for royalty-free commercial rights in that territory. In the latter circumstance, PeptiDream would also forego royalty income for ex-Japan sales.