Novo Nordisk and Septerna have announced a new partnership worth $2.2bn to develop oral small molecule drugs for type 2 diabetes, obesity and other cardiometabolic diseases.
The exclusive global collaboration and licence agreement combines Novo’s capabilities in cardiometabolic diseases with Septerna’s Native Complex Platform, which aims to “unlock the full potential” of G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) therapies.
GPCRs represent the largest and most varied family of cell membrane receptors in the human genome. Despite this, approximately 75% of potential GPCR therapeutic targets currently remain undrugged, highlighting a “substantial untapped opportunity” for future drug discovery,
according to Septerna.
Marcus Schindler, Novo’s executive vice president and chief scientific officer, said: “Leveraging different modalities creates important optionality in our pipeline in terms of potential targets, dosing regimens and scalability.
“Septerna has demonstrated strong capabilities in GPCR drug discovery, and we are excited about the opportunity to develop oral small molecule medicines directed at multiple targets.”
The companies will initially launch four development programmes for potential small molecule therapies directed to one or more select GPCR targets, including the GIP, GLP-1 and glucagon receptors.
The partners will collaborate on research activities from discovery to development candidate selection, with Novo taking on full responsibility for all global development and commercialisation activities starting from investigational New Drug Application-enabling activities.
In exchange, Septerna will be eligible to receive around $2.2bn from Novo, including over $200m in upfront and near-term milestone payments, and will be in line for tiered royalties on global net sales of any marketed products.
The biotech will also be able to opt in to a global profit share for one programme in the collaboration instead of receiving future milestones and royalties for that asset.
Also commenting on the deal, Septerna’s chief executive officer and co-founder, Jeffrey Finer, said: “This collaboration provides a significant opportunity to create multiple potentially groundbreaking oral medicines, while also providing Septerna with the operational flexibility and resources to advance our diverse portfolio of other GPCR-targeted programmes.”