Novo Nordisk and Vivtex have formalised a collaboration aimed at advancing next-generation oral biologic therapies targeting obesity, diabetes and related comorbidities.
Under the terms of the agreement, Vivtex will grant Novo Nordisk licences to selected oral drug-delivery technologies. In return, Vivtex will receive research funding, upfront payments and milestone payments that could total up to $2.1bn, in addition to tiered royalties tied to future product sales.
The strategic focus of the Novo Nordisk and Vivtex partnership is to support the oral delivery of biologic drug candidates that have historically required injection because of limited absorption in the gastrointestinal tract. By addressing this longstanding barrier, the companies intend to broaden therapeutic possibilities in metabolic disease treatment.
Central to the collaboration is the combination of Novo Nordisk’s expertise in peptide and protein therapeutics with Vivtex’s gastrointestinal screening and formulation platform. The joint effort is expected to identify and advance next-generation oral therapeutics by leveraging the complementary strengths of both organisations.
Novo Nordisk’s therapeutics discovery senior vice-president Brian Vandahl said: “Novo Nordisk has been at the forefront of innovation in protein and peptide engineering for several decades, and not least within oral formulation of peptides. We launched the first-ever oral biologic more than five years ago and have recently launched the world’s first oral biologic for obesity.
“We continue to push the boundaries of science through both internal and external innovation to fulfil our mission of treating millions more people living with obesity and diabetes and their associated comorbidities.”
Vivtex CEO and co-founder Thomas von Erlach highlighted the technical complexity involved in oral biologic delivery. He said: “Making biologics oral has been one of the most difficult challenges in drug delivery. Vivtex was founded to systematically solve this problem by integrating high-throughput experimentation with computational and AI-enabled analytics.
“Partnering with Novo Nordisk allows us to apply our platform across important metabolic disease areas, with the goal of enabling oral therapies that would otherwise require injection.”
Vivtex’s platform brings together drug-delivery technologies, gastrointestinal screening assays, AI tools and computational simulation to improve the oral delivery of biologic medicines. The system is engineered to achieve high oral bioavailability and deliver consistent performance in humans.
Following the completion of research and formulation selection phases, Novo Nordisk will assume responsibility for global development, regulatory activities, manufacturing and commercialisation of any resulting products.
In a separate development last month, the company advanced its ongoing partnership with Aspect Biosystems into a new phase. That collaboration centres on curative cellular medicines designed to treat diabetes.
