Novo Nordisk has entered a research partnership with Flagship Pioneering and Metaphore Biotechnologies to jointly develop up to two next-generation therapeutics for the management of obesity.
The collaboration forms part of a strategic deal between Novo Nordisk and Flagship, focusing on new treatment approaches for cardiometabolic and rare diseases.
Pioneering Medicines, a division of Flagship responsible for drug development and partnerships, will lead the collaboration alongside Novo Nordisk’s Bio Innovation Hub.
The Bio Innovation Hub is a research and development (R&D) unit that expedites therapeutic development through co-creation collaborations.
Metaphore will collaborate with Pioneering Medicines and Novo Nordisk to progress the programmes from foundational activities to preclinical development.
The collaboration will utilise Metaphor’s MIMIC platform to create multitarget therapies that act on the GLP-1 receptor and related biology.
The goal is to develop scalable, long-acting agents that allow infrequent dosing.
Novo Nordisk may make upfront, development and commercial milestone payments of $600m, in addition to tiered royalty payments on annual net product sales.
These payments and royalties will be shared between Pioneering Medicines and Metaphore.
Novo Nordisk will reimburse R&D expenses and contribute to Metaphore’s future financing round.
Metaphore co-founder and CEO and Flagship Pioneering origination partner Lovisa Afzelius stated: “Working with Novo Nordisk is a significant opportunity to apply our MIMIC platform in one of the most exciting areas of drug development and with one of the most experienced drug development teams working in obesity.
“This collaboration could further validate our unique ability to programme function into therapeutic molecules with the MIMIC platform to enhance efficacy, extend durability and optimise manufacturing for a single therapeutic addressing multiple obesity-related targets, including but not limited to the GLP-1 receptor.”
Earlier this month, Novo Nordisk reported DKr61bn ($8.7bn) in sales from its diabetes and obesity portfolio, accounting for 93.3% of its total sales in Q1 2024.
Source: pharmaceutical-technology.com
CordenPharma announced its largest strategic investment to date, committing to spend ~€900m over the next three years to enhance its peptide technology platform. The planned investment consists of two major expansion initiatives occurring in parallel in the US and Europe, including both existing facilities and new constructions.
DSM-Firmenich has announced the sale of its MEG-3 fish oil business to KD Pharma Group, a contract development and manufacturing organisation that is active in pharmaceutical and nutritional lipids. As part of the transaction, DSM-Firmenich will obtain a minority stake of 29% in KD Pharma’s parent company O³ Holding GmbH.
Veranova, a development and manufacturing of specialist and complex APIs for the pharmaceutica l and biotech sectors, recently announced the appointment of Cécile Maupas as Senior Vice President, Chief Commercial Officer. Cécile will join the executive team and assume responsibility for business development, marketing, project management, commercial operations, and product management.
