A drug-device combination bankrolled by Medtronic Inc. (NYSE:MDT) and developed by Nile Therapeutics Inc. (NSDQ:NLTX) completed dosing its first patient in Part B of an ongoing phase 1 study of cenderitide, a peptide treatment for heart failure.
Medtronic funded the trial and provided expertise on building a drug-device combination to “assess the pharmacokinetics and phamacodynamics of cenderitide delivered through Medtronic diabetes pump technology.”
The next phase of the study involves dosing cenderitide with Medtronic’s insulin pump technology.
Other terms of the deal were not announced, but Medtronic has made a practice of placing side bets on emerging technologies. Last January, it pumped $15 million into Lexington, Mass.-based GI Dynamics and its gastric sleeve for weight loss and has about $300 million spread around in emerging technologies, according to CEO Bill Hawkins.
Hawkins told MassDevice last fall that Fridley, Minn.-based Medtronic is always looking for new technologies it may have a strategic interest in.
“We survey the landscape continuously to see who’s doing what, whether it’s in obesity or sleep apnea, hypertension — areas that fit into this product/disease mantra,” he told us. “We’re very creative in terms of how we structure these deals in some cases its straight equity, convertible notes, in some cases debt financing. There’s no cookie cutter method for how we do a deal with a company.”