Obesity fighting success fuels Novo bet on gene-editing tech
24/05/2023 11:00
By Natalie Grover
LONDON, May 24 (Reuters) - Capitalising on strong demand
for its obesity therapies, Novo Nordisk's NOVOb.CO growing
appetite for deals has fuelled a bet on a U.S. gene-editing
company called Life Edit Therapeutics.
The Danish drugmaker's collaboration with Durham, North
Carolina-based Life Edit Therapeutics - owned by ElevateBio, a
cell and gene therapy company in Waltham - is focused on up to
seven programs for rare genetic disorders as well as
cardiometabolic diseases.
At the heart of the tie-up is Life Edit's technology, called
base editing, which is designed to make precise changes to the
human genome by tweaking one base - or letter - into a different
one without affecting other letters.
Single-letter mistakes, called point mutations, can give
rise to genetic diseases.
The Novo deal comes as the company basks in the success of
its incredibly popular weight-loss drug Wegovy, for which demand
has far outstripped supply.
Earlier this month, the company said it was on the prowl for
deals largely in areas it has already invested in, including
diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular disease and gene therapies.
Novo did not disclose exactly which disease areas it is
hoping to target with Life Edit, or the size of the upfront cash
payment it has made in the company. But it is on the hook for
millions in potential milestone payments, in addition to
royalties.
It has also made equity investment in ElevateBio as part of
its $401 million series D financing round.
The Novo collaboration comes at the earliest stages of
development - it remains unclear if and when any Life Edit
program might be ready for testing in clinical trials.
"We're definitely talking about years and not months," said
ElevateBio cofounder and CEO David Hallal.
Life Edit - which in February announced a partnership with
COVID-vaccine maker Moderna MRNA.O - is part of a growing crop
of biotech companies working on a range of gene-editing tools,
including silencing disease-causing genes, making precise tweaks
to DNA to address genetic flaws, or inserting new genes to treat
disease.
(Reporting by Natalie Grover in London; Editing by Lincoln
Feast.)
((natalie.grover@thomsonreuters.com; Twitter: @NatalieGrover;))