Novo Nordisk has announced the results from Phase IIIa trial聽PIONEER 5, which investigated its oral semaglutide in adults with Type 2 diabetes and moderate renal impairment.
Oral semaglutides are investigational glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) analogues that are taken once daily as a tablet. Novo Nordisk鈥檚 oral semaglutide utilises聽Emisphere Technologies’ proprietary Eligen庐 Technology, and is subject to an exclusive license agreement that provides for payments by聽Novo Nordisk聽to聽Emisphere聽upon the achievement of specified development and sales milestones, in addition to royalty payments.
Senior vice-president of global drug discovery at Novo Nordisk Marcus Schindler said: 鈥淣ovo Nordisk values our continued collaboration with聽Emisphere聽and looks forward to working with the Eligen庐 technology under our current agreements鈥�.
On 12 July, MHR Fund Management and some of its affiliated funds converted聽$963,781聽of certain of its secured convertible notes, having a conversion price of聽$0.50 per share into 1,927,562 shares of Emisphere鈥檚 common stock. Excluding the amounts converted on 12 July, $67m聽of Emisphere鈥檚 secured convertible notes were outstanding as of 30 June.
On聽July 13, Emisphere聽repaid聽$1m of its outstanding debt under a secured loan agreement dated 20 August 2014, between MHR and聽Emisphere, which repayment was required pursuant to the terms. Excluding the amounts repaid on 13 July, 2018,聽$30m聽was outstanding under this loan facility as of 30 June 2018.