The Danish pharma company Zealand Pharma announces peptide drug research and development collaboration agreement with Eli Lilly and Company.

The two companies will together design and develop potentially novel therapeutic peptides for Type 2 diabetes and obesity. The development will be based on a novel approach discovered by Lilly and the two companies will share risk and reward in this potential multi-target collaboration which may also be expanded into other disease areas.

“We are very excited about this collaboration that allows us to work with Lilly and exploit the synergies of our mutual focus to provide better diabetes medicines. Forming such an important partnership is a further powerful validation of Zealand’s unique capabilities in peptide innovation and development,” said David Solomon, CEO of Zealand, in the company press release.

”Lilly scientists have discovered a novel peptide hormone-based approach which has the potential to lower blood glucose as well as body weight,” said Ruth Gimeno, Ph.D., chief scientific officer for diabetes drug discovery at Lilly, in the press release. ”We are pleased to engage in a collaborative program with Zealand with the objective of advancing this concept toward early development.”

No financial terms of the agreement have been disclosed.