Orbis Medicines Enters Multi-Target Drug Discovery Partnership with Novo Nordisk Worth up to USD 1.4 Billion

• Agreement includes up to USD 1.4 billion with upfront and potential future milestone payments plus tiered royalties
• Novo will also make a strategic investment in Orbis Medicines
• Collaboration seeks to develop orally bioavailable macrocycle drug candidates for cardiometabolic targets
• Partnership combines Novo's leadership in obesity and cardiometabolic disease with Orbis Medicines' proprietary AI-enabled macrocycle discovery platform

COPENHAGEN, Denmark--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Orbis Medicines, a leader in oral macrocycle drug discovery, today announced a strategic collaboration and license agreement with Novo Nordisk to discover and develop next-generation oral macrocycle therapeutics for cardiometabolic diseases. The agreement enables the acceleration of the development of a new class of orally available medicines for high-value therapeutic targets.

Under the terms of the agreement, Orbis Medicines is eligible to receive up to USD 1.4 billion in upfront and potential development and commercial milestone payments, in addition to tiered royalties on future product sales. Novo will also make a strategic investment in Orbis Medicines, underscoring its confidence in the company's ⁿGen platform and long-term potential.

“This collaboration reinforces that the future of oral biologic drug discovery lies at the intersection of AI, proprietary experimental macrocycle datasets and world-class automated chemistry,” said Morten Graugaard, chief executive officer of Orbis Medicines. “Our ⁿGen platform continuously learns from data generated by our high throughput chemistry and screening platform to design orally bioavailable macrocycles with the potential to replace injectable medicines. Together with Novo, we have an opportunity to unlock a new generation of oral medicines for cardiometabolic diseases and demonstrate the transformative potential of AI-enabled macrocycle drug discovery.”

The collaboration will leverage Orbis Medicines' proprietary ⁿGen platform, which integrates generative AI and high-throughput synthesis capabilities. The platform's multi-parameter optimization (MPO) engine designs ⁿCycles with good drug-like properties, continuously improved through one of the industry's largest experimental macrocycle datasets, which Orbis is generating in real time via its lab-in-the-loop ⁿGen platform. ⁿGen seeks to overcome the longstanding oral bioavailability and drug-likeness limitations of macrocycles, enabling rapid discovery of differentiated oral medicines against challenging targets.

"Orbis Medicines has developed a differentiated platform for macrocycle drug discovery, combining deep expertise in macrocycle chemistry with AI-enabled molecular design,” said Brian Vandahl, senior vice president, Therapeutics Discovery, Novo. “We believe this collaboration has the potential to unlock innovative oral treatment options for patients with cardiometabolic diseases while expanding the possibilities of macrocycle therapeutics."

About Orbis Medicines

Orbis Medicines is pioneering a new era for oral macrocycle drug discovery. Its ⁿGen platform systematically develops synthetic macrocycles, termed ⁿCycles. These are optimized for oral bioavailability, which has historically hindered the therapeutic development of this versatile class of molecules. Orbis Medicines’ pipeline is initially focused on ⁿCycle against targets validated by blockbuster biologic drugs delivered by injection. Proof-of-concept of Orbis Medicines’ work has been published in Nature Communications and Nature Chemical Biology. The company has raised EUR 116 million in venture funding to date, including a EUR 90 million Series A round led by NEA with new investors Lilly Ventures, Cormorant, EIFO, and existing investors Forbion and Novo Holdings. Orbis Medicines is located in Copenhagen, Denmark and Lausanne, Switzerland. For more information, please visit: www.orbismedicines.com.

About ⁿGen

ⁿGen is Orbis Medicines’ technology platform for generating ⁿCycles, a new class of fully synthetic macrocycle compounds optimized for oral bioavailability and membrane permeability. ⁿGen , a lab-in-the-loop platform, leverages generative AI with high throughput synthesis capabilities. This unique combination allows Orbis Medicines to design, synthesize and analyze thousands of distinct synthetic macrocycles in weeks. The scale and quality of the data produced from these real compounds, paired with machine learning, create an industry-leading platform that de-risks and accelerates development.

About Novo

Novo is the global healthcare company that believes lasting health starts now. For over a century, Novo has combined leading scientific expertise with a deep understanding of people’s lives. Novo develops treatments and support that help millions of people make progress they can see, feel and sustain now and in the future.