Akesis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (OTC: AKES) has entered into an exclusive license and commercialization agreement with the University of British Columbia for bis(ethylmaltolato) oxovanadium (IV) or BEOV – a novel vanadium compound that has shown potential for the treatment of type 2 diabetes.
Invented and developed by University of British Columbia researchers, Chris Orvig (professor of chemistry and pharmaceutical sciences) and John McNeill (professor and dean emeritus, pharmaceutical sciences), BEOV offers significantly improved pharmacological properties over other vanadium-based compounds.
According to Akesis president and chief executive officer Jay Lichter, Ph.D.:
"The in-licensing of BEOV represents a substantial acceleration in our clinical development efforts, as it provides us with a compound that we believe possesses all of the attributes necessary to progress into Phase 2 clinical trials.
In addition, while BEOV would likely be a viable stand-alone product for diabetes care, we believe that a combination of BEOV with existing diabetes treatments, as covered by the existing Akesis intellectual property, may ultimately result in the best and most effective product for patients with diabetes."
Now that BEOV is exclusively licensed to Akesis, it will be referred to as AKP-020 and will complement Akesis' existing portfolio of propriety vanadium and chromium combination diabetes product candidates.
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