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www.fdanews.com/articles/172720-boehringer-ingelheim-partners-with-circuit-therapeutics-to-develop-obesity-drugs

Boehringer Ingelheim Partners with Circuit Therapeutics to Develop Obesity Drugs

August 20, 2015

Boehringer Ingelheim is aiming to broaden its research into diabetes and other cardiometabolic diseases via a partnership with Circuit Therapeutics to develop novel drugs to treat obesity.

The three-year collaboration will use Circuit’s proprietary optogenetics technology to identify targets in central nervous system circuits for obesity, as well as central and peripheral circuits for coordinating food intake. Financial terms of the deal weren’t disclosed.

Michel Pairet, BI’s senior corporate vice president of research and nonclinical development, says the new technology could help unravel the neurological circuits responsible for metabolic disorders down to individual neurons, leading to identification of new targets and treatments.

The agreement marks the second collaboration between BI and Circuit. In 2013, the companies inked an agreement to discover new approaches to treat neuropsychiatric disorders. The effort has yielded first targets for symptoms of anhedonia, the inability to feel and experience pleasure. BI says it will investigate those targets with respect to possible treatments. — Jonathon Shacat