Novo Nordisk and Ascendis Pharma have partnered to develop therapies for metabolic and cardiovascular diseases, including a once-monthly GLP-1 receptor agonist that will initially target type 2 diabetes and obesity.
Ascendis will be eligible to receive up to $285m in upfront, development and regulatory milestone payments for the lead GLP-1 programme, as well as sales-based milestone payments and tiered royalties on global net sales.
The deal gives Novo an exclusive worldwide licence to Ascendis’ TransCon technology platform to develop, manufacture and commercialise proprietary products in metabolic diseases, as well as a product-by-product exclusive licence in cardiovascular diseases.
Novo will also have exclusive rights to expand any resulting metabolic disease products into other therapeutic areas.
For each additional metabolic or cardiovascular disease product, Ascendis could receive up to $77.5m in development and regulatory milestone payments, plus sales-based milestone payments and tiered royalties on global net sales.
Under the terms of the agreement, Ascendis will conduct early development of TransCon products, while Novo will be responsible for early development costs and for clinical development, regulatory, commercial manufacturing and commercialisation.
Ascendis says itsTransCon technology combines known biology with the benefits of prodrug and sustained-release technologies to potentially optimise therapeutic effect.
Brian Vandahl, senior vice president of global research technologies at Novo, said: “Developing potential therapies that can be administered less frequently could benefit societies as well as individual patients, and it is a clear focus area for Novo Nordisk.
“We look forward to working with Ascendis to explore the potential of the TransCon technology platform to reduce the dosing frequency of GLP-1 receptor agonists and other treatments for cardiometabolic diseases.”
The deal comes less than two months after Novo entered into a multi-year partnership with NanoVation Therapeutics to advance genetic medicines for cardiometabolic and rare diseases.
The company entered into a collaboration and licensing agreement with Neomorph in February aimed at discovering and developing molecular glue degraders, also for cardiometabolic and rare diseases, and announced two research collaborations with Omega Therapeutics and Cellarity in January to develop new treatment approaches for cardiometabolic diseases.