Novo Nordisk and Neomorph have entered into a collaboration and licensing agreement aimed at discovering and developing molecular glue degraders (MGDs) for cardiometabolic and rare diseases, with the deal potentially worth up to $1.46bn.
Targeted protein degradation drugs are designed to reprogramme the body’s cellular machinery to selectively destroy disease-causing proteins.
MGDs are believed to open up opportunities to eliminate therapeutically relevant proteins that have previously been considered ‘undruggable’ by other approaches.
In exchange for the use of its proprietary glue discovery platform, Neomorph will receive upfront and near-term milestone payments, research and development funding from Novo and will be eligible for future clinical, commercial and sales milestone payments plus tiered royalties.
Brian Vandahl, Novo’s senior vice president of global research technologies, said the company is “expanding its drug discovery efforts and deploying a range of novel technology platforms with the aim of discovering and developing new treatment solutions for people living with serious chronic diseases”.
“We are pleased to enter this research collaboration and eager to start the scientific work on the novel class of MGDs being pioneered by Neomorph,” he added.
Neomorph will lead the discovery and preclinical activities against selected targets, after which Novo will have the option to exclusively pursue further clinical development and commercialisation of the compounds.
Phil Chamberlain, co-founder, president and chief executive officer of Neomorph, said: “By combining Neomorph’s proprietary glue discovery platform with Novo’s vast experience in cardiometabolic and rare diseases, we are well positioned to develop transformative treatments in these areas.
“This collaboration will enable the expansion of our platform into new therapeutic areas, complementing our on-going efforts in oncology.”
The partnership comes just one week after Novo gave Almirall exclusive rights to develop its IL-21-blocking monoclonal antibody for immune inflammatory dermatological diseases.
Novo’s NN-8828 is a high-affinity monoclonal antibody which has been developed up to phase 2 for non-dermatological indications. The candidate has the potential to block the activation of the downstream signalling pathways of IL-21 and inhibit the pathophysiological functions induced by cytokines in several immune cells, making it a promising option to treat inflammatory and autoimmune skin disorders.