Novo Nordisk and Orbis Medicines signed a deal worth up to $1.4 billion to discover oral treatments for cardiometabolic diseases often treated with injections. The collaboration remains at the discovery stage, so any commercial payoff depends on further development.
The agreement includes an upfront payment, potential development and commercial milestone payments, tiered royalties on future sales and a strategic investment by Novo in Orbis. The companies did not disclose the upfront payment, investment amount or breakdown of the headline value, much of which is tied to future milestones.
The companies will use Orbis’ AI-enabled nGen platform to discover orally bioavailable macrocycles. Orbis reported up to 18% oral bioavailability for its synthetic macrocycles in preclinical work; efficacy, safety, manufacturing feasibility and commercial viability still need to be established for any resulting candidates.
