BioWorld International Correspondent

7TM Pharma A/S added DKK123 million (US$22.1 million) to its balance sheet in a new funding round led by S.R. One Ltd., of West Conshohocken, Penn., the venture capital arm of London-based GlaxoSmithKline plc.

That brings 7TM Pharma's total funding to about DKK610 million and, said CEO Mette Kristine Agger, funds the company until "well into" 2009. "We ended last year with a cash position of €22 million," she told BioWorld International.

The company, which was founded in 2000, is eyeing an IPO but has yet to decide on the timing. "We now have a very broad and solid investor base, which will allow us to go out at the right time," Agger said. LD Pensions, of Copenhagen, Denmark, which led its last funding round, also participated in the recent transaction. Its other backers include Scottish Widows Investment Partnership, Alta Partners, Novo A/S, Index Ventures, Johnson & Johnson Development Corp. and Dansk Innovationsinvestering.

Horsholm, Denmark-based 7TM will use the cash to advance its clinical pipeline of two anti-obesity drugs and to take a third in-house program into preclinical development within the next six to 12 months. It also has two ongoing, drug discovery partnerships, in obesity with Cincinnati-based Procter & Gamble Co., and in asthma and allergy with Ortho-McNeil Pharmaceutical Inc., a subsidiary of New Brunswick, N.J.-based Johnson & Johnson.

7TM Pharma's lead molecule, Obinepitide (TM30338), has just entered a Phase II clinical trial in obesity, while a second compound, TM30339, will complete a Phase I clinical trial by the third quarter and will enter a Phase II trial in the same indication in 2008.

Obinepitide is a synthetic peptide that mimics the actions of two neuropeptides, involved in satiety signaling, PYY3-36 and pancreatic polypeptide, which act, respectively, on the neuropeptide receptors Y2 and Y4. Each is a G-protein coupled receptor (GPCR), but they operate on different timescales. "If you look at the Y2 and Y4 mechanisms, they are clearly different," Agger said. The Y2 receptor response occurs shortly after food intake, whereas the Y4 receptor functions more slowly.

A Phase I/II clinical study indicated that it inhibited food intake by clinically obese subjects to a statistically significant extent for up to nine hours after subcutaneous administration. The current Phase II study is recruiting 180 participants, each with a body mass index of between 30 and 40. The placebo-controlled study will evaluate weight loss after 28 days of treatment. Results of the new study are due in the first quarter of 2008, and 7TM Pharma has sufficient funding to conduct a Phase IIb clinical trial. "We have the flexibility of deciding when do we partner," Agger said.

TM30339 is an analogue of pancreatic polypeptide and acts on the Y4 receptor. It, too, is administered subcutaneously, although the company may explore alternative delivery options in the future. However, the acceptability of Byetta (exenatide), the injectable Type II diabetes drug marketed by Amylin Pharmaceuticals, Inc., of San Diego, and Indianapolis-based Lilly & Co., indicates that injectables for obesity also are likely to be feasible, Agger said. "Long-term clinical obesity is a real disease," Agger said.