German pharmaceutical company Boehringer Ingelheim has formed a three-year collaboration with Circuit Therapeutics to develop new medicines to treat obesity and associated diseases. This is the second collaboration with Circuit Therapeutics using its proprietary optogenetics technology platform, and is intended to broaden Boehringer Ingelheim’s pipeline in this area.

The technology will be used to identify targets in central nervous circuits relevant for obesity, and central and peripheral circuits relevant for co-ordinating food intake. The insights gained will give a better understanding of the mechanisms involved in obesity and enable novel therapeutics to be prioritized.

Eating disorders are one of the major contributing factors to overweight and obesity which are high risk factors for type 2 diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, and other health problems.

The first collaboration, which is focused on discovering new treatments for neuropsychiatric disorders, has already yielded first targets for symptoms of anhedonia (the inability to feel and experience pleasure) which Boehringer Ingelheim will investigate further.

“Boehringer Ingelheim is excited about the potential of the optogenetics technology platform developed by Circuit and wants to carry on the success already achieved in the area of neurology into the area of metabolism, said Michel Pairet, senior corporate vice president of research and non-clinical development at Boehringer Ingelheim.

He added: “This new technology may enable us to unravel the neurological circuits responsible for metabolic disorders down to individual neurons which could lead to the identification of new targets and subsequently new treatments in line with our corporate vision of improving patients’ lives.”