The company’s diabetes project is progressing as planned and the company has submitted an enhanced patent application for its novel peptide drug candidate  class.

A large amount of results have been processed to complete the application submitted in early May 2017. The results show that the new peptide class has the potential to become a valuable addition to  the current treatment of diabetes, according to the company press release.

Follicum initially identified a new class of peptides that increase insulin secretion in several experimental models. A number of new peptides within this class have been developed to optimize the desirable properties. Several of these induce an improved insulin release which is also potentiated with increasing glucose concentration in in vitro trials. The potential of the peptides as drug candidates has also been confirmed in glucose tolerance tests where they have demonstrated a glucose lowering effect in animal models . In addition, the peptides have been shown to delay the onset of the disease in an animal model for Type I diabetes. These experimental studies have been conducted in collaboration with Follicum’s network at Lund University.

The next milestone in the diabetes project is to choose a drug candidate by the end of 2018/2019 and advance this candidate towards clinical trials.