Novo teams up with Vivtex to develop oral metabolic biologics

Novo Nordisk has signed a pact worth up $2.1 billion with biotech startup Vivtex to develop new oral biologics for treating obesity, diabetes and other related metabolic conditions, the companies announced today in a joint press release.

Under the deal, Vivtex stands to receive up to $2.1 billion through a combination of upfront payments, milestones and research funding from Novo on top of sales royalties on any future drugs developed through the partnership. In return, the Danish drugmaker will gain access to certain oral drug-delivery technologies to help identify next-generation oral biologics.

The collaboration brings together Novo's decades of experience in protein and peptide engineering and Vivtex's gastrointestinal (GI) screening and formulation platform to overcome the challenges of oral biologics, which are typically poorly absorbed in the GI tract.

"Making biologics oral has been one of the most difficult challenges in drug delivery," Thomas von Erlach, Ph.D., CEO and co-founder of Vivtex, said in the release.

Vivtex's platform, engineered to maximize bioavailability and deliver consistent performance in patients, integrates proprietary screening assays, drug-delivery technologies and AI to enhance the oral delivery of biologic therapies.

"Partnering with Novo Nordisk allows us to apply our platform across important metabolic disease areas, with the goal of enabling oral therapies that would otherwise require injection," von Erlach added.

After research and early development of new oral biologics are completed, Novo Nordisk will take over responsibility for advancing and bringing the products to market, according to the press release.

Novo has been a pioneer in oral biologics, having launched Rybelsus -- the first of its kind -- more than five years ago, and more recently making history again with the world's first oral biologic for obesity, the Wegovy pill.

After a string of missteps, the Danish drugmaker has been working to regain ground against its main rival, Eli Lilly, and scored a major win by beating Lilly to market with its GLP-1 pill early last month.

The Vivtex deal expands Novo's oral biologics pipeline and reflects the company's approach of combining in-house research with external partnerships to discover new cardiometabolic drugs.

Alivia Kaylor is a scientist and the senior site editor of Pharma Life Sciences.