Wegovy maker Novo Nordisk enters research tie-ups with US biotech firms (updated)

Omega Liquidating

04/01/2024 12:41

(Adds share movement in paragraph 3)
    By Maggie Fick
       LONDON, Jan 4 (Reuters) - Blockbuster weight-loss drug
maker Novo Nordisk  NOVOb.CO  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  OMGA.O  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.
    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)
 ((maggie.fick@thomsonreuters.com; +44 7890 916706;))