BALLERUP, Denmark I July 12, 2018 I Saniona, a leading biotech company within ion-channel research, today announced that Boehringer Ingelheim has selected the first candidate for pre-clinical and clinical development under Saniona’s and Boehringer Ingelheim’s collaboration in schizophrenia. Saniona will receive a research milestone of € 4 million (41.8 MSEK) as a result of the candidate selection by Boehringer Ingelheim.

“It has been a great pleasure to work with the Boehringer Ingelheim Neuroscience team and we very much appreciate their commitment, professional, visionary and diligent collaborative efforts leading to this important milestone in our collaboration in schizophrenia. I also wish to thank our internal Saniona ion channel team for their dedicated and highly skilled work on this innovative program,” says Jørgen Drejer, CEO of Saniona

Saniona entered into a drug discovery and development collaboration with Boehringer Ingelheim in 2016. The collaboration focuses on research of new small molecule therapeutics that could be capable of restoring brain network activity in patients with schizophrenia.

“By combining Saniona’s expertise in ion channels and related technology platforms with Boehringer Ingelheim’s expertise in research and clinical development as well as marketing of medicines, we are well positioned to advance new treatment options for schizophrenia.”

Saniona may receive up to €90 million in milestone payments including an upfront payment of €5 million which was paid upon signing of the agreement. The milestone payments include up to €50 million upon the achievement of certain research, development and regulatory milestones and up to €35 million in commercial milestone. In addition, Saniona is entitled to tiered royalties on net sales of any potential products commercialized by Boehringer Ingelheim as a result of this collaboration. Following the above milestone payment of € 4 million, Saniona will have received a total of €9 million under the collaboration.

“The achieved milestone confirms Saniona’s ability to bring forward new innovative treatment opportunities in severe diseases. The income from milestones and royalty payments under Saniona’s collaboration agreements represents important contributions for Saniona and it will be used to the continued development of Saniona’s own programs.”

For more information, please contact

Thomas Feldthus, EVP and CFO, Saniona, Mobile: +45 2210 9957, E-mail: tf@saniona.com“>tf@saniona.com

This information is such information as Saniona AB (publ) is obliged to make public pursuant to the EU Market Abuse Regulation. The information was submitted for publication, through the agency of the contact person set out above, at 08:00 a.m. CEST on July 12, 2018.

About Saniona

Saniona is a research and development company focused on drugs for diseases of the central nervous system, autoimmune diseases, metabolic diseases and treatment of pain. Saniona has four programs in clinical development including three late stage clinical programs focused on the development of treatments to effectively regulate obsessions, cravings and addictions related to food and drugs. Saniona intends to develop and commercialize treatments for orphan indications such as Prader-Willi syndrome on its own and engage in partnerships with larger entities for development programs aiming to treat large indications such as obesity. The company’s research is focused on ion channels, which makes up a unique protein class that enables and controls the passage of charged ions across cell membranes. Saniona has ongoing collaboration agreements with Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH, Productos Medix, S.A de S.V and Cadent Therapeutics. Saniona’s research center is based in Copenhagen, Denmark, and the company’s shares are listed at Nasdaq Stockholm Small Cap (OMX: SANION). Read more at www.saniona.com.

SOURCE: Saniona