Sequana to Get Payment for Diabetes Study

La Jolla-based Sequana Therapeutics Inc. said it will receive a milestone payment from Glaxo Wellcome for a study that identified regions of DNA that Sequana and Glaxo believe contain genes associated with diabetes. This will be the second payment from Glaxo Wellcome, which agreed to pay Sequana as much as $50 million if Glaxo Wellcome can develop a drug based on the research. Sequana would not disclose how much Glaxo Wellcome has already agreed to in milestone payments. Sequana started a five-year collaboration with the U.S. unit of Britain’s Glaxo Wellcome in 1994 to identify genes that contribute to non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus. The disease, which usually begins after age 30, affects more than 100 million people. Sequana said the study involved analyses of more than 5,000 people from diabetic families. Now that it has identified which regions of chromosomes contain the genes, the next step will be to more precisely locate them, said Sequana project leader Callum Bell. Shares of Sequana rose 75 cents to close at $11.63 on Nasdaq.