NewAmsterdam Pharma acquires Obicetrapib from Amgen

NewAmsterdam Pharma B.V. (“NAP”) has acquired the rights to Obicetrapib (AMG 899) from Amgen.

The new Company, spearheaded by Michael Davidson, MD (CEO) and John Kastelein, MD, PhD, FESC (CSO), is currently working with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on a comprehensive phase 3 clinical development program, including a cardiovascular outcome trial (CVOT) for obicetrapib. NAP is targeting for these trials to begin in 2021. To this end, the Company has received seed funding of approximately EUR 20M from Dutch investment firm Forbion as well as its Founders and will be raising a substantial financing round before year-end.

Obicetrapib is a cholesteryl ester transfer protein (CETP) inhibitor which targets Apolipoprotein B (ApoB) and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-c) in the body. Obicetrapib is being developed for patients who are not well controlled on statins and patients who are statin-intolerant. Approximately 32 million people globally have statin-associated side effects or as a result of side effects, have discontinued their statin therapy.1

A Phase 2b study called TULIP, published in The Lancet showed that obicetrapib significantly reduced the number of ApoB-containing particles that constitute LDL-c and was well-tolerated in patients with mild dyslipidaemia. 2 The randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study tested the drug in 364 patients, to assess the safety, tolerability, and efficacy of the potential therapy.

In 2017, Amgen decided to discontinue the internal development of obicetrapib for strategic reasons and pursue out-licensing opportunities. Forbion believes that this drug could address very substantial unmet medical needs and therefore initiated conversations with Amgen to continue developing the asset. For this purpose, it has established NewAmsterdam Pharma B.V.

Financial terms of the acquisition of Obicetrapib by NAP from Amgen were not disclosed.

Sander Slootweg, Managing Partner at Forbion commented: “NewAmsterdam Pharma constitutes a very attractive investment opportunity, as obicetrapib has the potential to address the huge and poorly served patient segment of patients at risk of cardiovascular disease, currently not well controlled on statins or those even completely statin-intolerant. With over 30 million patients meeting these criteria, we believe that obicetrapib has mega-blockbuster sales potential. For this reason, we were able to attract a top founder team with Michael Davidson MD as CEO, who recently sold his previous company Corvidia Therapeutics, Inc. to Novo Nordisk and John Kastelein as CSO, after selling his previous company Staten Biotech to the same Novo Nordisk, in an option structure.

Source: Forbion (Press release)