Metabasis and Sankyo extend deal

San Diego, CA, US-based Metabasis Therapeutics and Japanese company Sankyo are to extend their joint research collaboration to develop oral Type II diabetes treatments. The collaboration was set up in 1997 after Metabasis discovered the first potent and selective inhibitors of the gluconeogenesis pathway, responsible for the overproduction of glucose in patients with Type II diabetes. Clinical testing of the first drug to come out of the agreement is expected to begin later this year.