Wegovy maker Novo Nordisk enters research tie-ups with US biotech firms
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[January 04, 2024]
By Maggie Fick
LONDON (Reuters) -Blockbuster weight-loss drug maker Novo Nordisk
announced on Thursday research collaborations with two U.S. biotech
firms, part of its efforts to stay ahead in big pharma's race to develop
more treatments for cardiometabolic diseases.
Novo, a Danish drugmaker whose share price rose 49% last year due to
soaring demand for its weight-loss medicine Wegovy, said the
partnerships with Omega Therapeutics and Cellarity Inc could lead to new
treatments for people living with obesity and a type of liver disease
known as MASH.
Shares of Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Omega, which had a market
capitalization of about $150 million as of Wednesday's close, nearly
doubled to $5.38 in U.S. premarket trading.
The two separate research and development collaborations are the first
announced under a framework deal that Novo signed in 2022 with Flagship
Pioneering, a U.S. investment firm focused on life sciences.
Omega and Cellarity are both portfolio companies of Flagship. The
companies will jointly conduct pre-clinical trial drug development work
with Novo. After that, Novo could advance the programmes into clinical
studies, it said in a statement.
Under the terms of the respective agreements, Novo will reimburse
research and development (R&D) costs. Each agreement may pay up to $532
million in upfront, development and commercial milestone payments, as
well as tiered royalties on annual net sales of a licensed product, to
be shared between the respective companies and Flagship.
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![](../images/010424PIX/health10.jpg)
The logo of Danish drugmaker Novo Nordisk in their offices in
Hillerod, Denmark, September 26, 2023. REUTERS/Tom Little/File Photo
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2024/Jan/04/images/ads/current/xamis_lda_LUAL_2023.png) Uli Stilz, vice president of Novo's
Bio Innovation Hub in Cambridge, Massachusetts, told Reuters that
the project will enable innovation which neither Novo nor the other
companies could do alone.
Stilz, who will run the research partnerships, said the work runs
parallel to Novo's later-stage clinical collaborations and its
acquisition of other companies through bolt-on deals which ramped up
last year as the company's war chest grew on record profit. "I can
confirm that we will do all of it."
(Reporting by Maggie Fick, additional reporting by Khushi Mandowara;
editing by David Evans)
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