Novo Strikes Up-to-$1.4 Billion Deal With Orbis to Chase Oral Cardiometabolic Drugs

Novo Nordisk has signed a drug discovery and licensing agreement with Orbis Medicines worth up to $1.4 billion. The financial arrangement includes upfront payments, milestone payments, tiered royalties, and a strategic equity investment in the Copenhagen-based startup.

The partnership focuses on developing oral therapies for cardiometabolic diseases that are currently administered through injections. To achieve this, the collaboration combines Orbis and its artificial intelligence platform with Novo expertise in the fields of obesity and cardiometabolic care.

The initiative centers on utilizing the nGen platform from Orbis, which uses data from high-throughput chemistry and screening to design orally bioavailable macrocycles. These macrocycles are intended to replace current injectable medicines and unlock a new generation of treatments.

This deal expands Novo involvement in artificial intelligence-driven drug discovery following a series of setbacks in its development pipeline.