Novo Nordisk Seeks to Strengthen Obesity Pipeline With Two Back-To-Back Biobuck Deals

On Wednesday, Novo Nordisk A/S NVO and Valo Health, Inc. entered into an expanded agreement to discover and develop novel treatments for obesity, type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular disease.

The companies originally partnered in September 2023 in an agreement that allowed for the development of up to 11 drug programs, primarily focused on cardiovascular disease.

Valo was eligible to receive up to $2.7 billion in milestone payments, plus R&D funding and potential royalty payments.

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Under the terms of the expanded agreement, Valo is entitled to receive an upfront payment, equity investment, and a potential near-term milestone payment totaling $190 million and is now eligible to receive milestone payments for up to 20 drug programs, an addition of 9 new drug programs, totaling approximately $4.6 billion, plus R&D funding and potential royalty payments.

The expanded collaboration will continue to leverage Valo's Opal Computational Platform's capabilities, key joint capabilities in human data and genetics, and Novo Nordisk's expertise in cardiometabolic diseases.

The collaboration has already identified several novel targets that may form the basis of differentiated cardiometabolic drug programs, and the companies are actively working on multiple small-molecule preclinical drug discovery programs.

On Tuesday, Variant Bio, a genomics-driven drug discovery company, announced a multi-year research collaboration with Novo Nordisk to discover novel targets for metabolic disease.

The partnership between Novo Nordisk and Variant Bio aims to identify and validate multiple novel targets with sufficient human genetic evidence to initiate human-centric drug discovery programs.

Under the terms of the agreement, Novo Nordisk said it would pay Variant Bio an upfront payment and additional near-term R&D funding totaling up to $50 million, plus potential option and milestone payments on targets that arise from the collaboration.

Price Action: NVO stock is up 2.95% at $85.80 at the last check on Wednesday.

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