Orbis Medicines Appoints Joanne Smith-Farrell, Ph.D., as CEO to Advance Its AI-Driven Oral Macrocycle Platform and Pipeline

• Smith-Farrell will lead the next phase of growth as Orbis evolves its platform, advances its pipeline, and builds on its collaboration with Novo Nordisk, valued at up to $1.4 billion
• Co-founder Morten Graugaard becomes Chief Business Officer, leading business development amid strong partnering momentum

COPENHAGEN--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Orbis Medicines, a leader in the discovery of next-generation macrocycles, oral medicines with biologics-like potency, today announced the appointment of Joanne Smith-Farrell, Ph.D., as Chief Executive Officer. She succeeds co-founder Morten Graugaard, who becomes Chief Business Officer.

Dr. Smith-Farrell will lead Orbis as it evolves its platform and advances its wholly owned immunology and inflammation programs and partnered portfolio. The portfolio includes a multi-target cardiometabolic collaboration with Novo Nordisk worth up to $1.4 billion. Mr. Graugaard will focus on business development and strategic partnerships, building on his role in establishing the Novo Nordisk collaboration.

“Oral medicines with the potency of biologics could broaden patient access well beyond what injectables allow today — a major addition to the industry’s medicine cabinet,” said Mikael Dolsten, M.D., Ph.D., Chairperson of the Board. “Joanne’s experience advancing platform-based companies and pipelines makes her well suited to lead Orbis’s next phase. We are grateful to Morten for building the company and look forward to his contribution in business development as we build on significant partnering momentum.”

“Orbis is entering an ambitious new phase of growth at a time when the industry is increasingly seeking oral alternatives to injectable biologics to bring important medicines to more patients,” said Dr. Smith-Farrell. “Morten and the team, backed by leading life sciences investors, have built a strong company to discover oral macrocycles that work like biologics. I am honored to lead this team as we develop a pipeline of medicines that matter to patients.”

Orbis’s AI-driven macrocycle platform designs and synthesizes ⁿCycles, small synthetic macrocycles engineered for oral delivery against targets typically reached only by injectable biologics. The platform combines generative AI models trained on one of the industry’s largest experimental macrocycle datasets with a lab-in-the-loop process to iteratively design and optimize candidates.

“It has been a privilege to build Orbis from a concept into a company with a platform validated through our Novo Nordisk partnership,” said Mr. Graugaard. “I am delighted to welcome Joanne, and I look forward to building the partnerships that will be a key driver of our growth alongside our own programs.”

Dr. Smith-Farrell brings more than 25 years of biopharmaceutical leadership experience. She most recently served as CEO of Be Biopharma, where she led the company’s transition from a platform-focused organization to a multi-program, clinical-stage company. As Chief Operating Officer and Head of the Oncology Business Unit at bluebird bio, she grew the unit from a single early-stage program into a broad pipeline, including Abecma, the first CAR-T therapy approved for multiple myeloma. She also held senior business development roles at Merck, Pfizer, and Gene Logic, and worked in Boston Consulting Group’s healthcare practice. She completed postdoctoral work with Professor Robert Langer at Harvard-MIT and holds a Ph.D. in physics from The Catholic University of America.

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 ⁿCycles 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; Lausanne, Switzerland; and Boston, Massachusetts. 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 accelerates discovery and optimization of oral macrocycle candidates.