Novo Nordisk, the Denmark-based pharmaceutical company, and NanoVation, a platform developer headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, are joining forces in a multi-year agreement to advance the development of novel genetic medicines that target cardiometabolic and rare diseases, NanoVation announced in a press release on Sept. 18, 2024 (1).

With the inherent barriers of nucleic acid delivery in mind, NanoVation said its proprietary, long-circulating lipid nanoparticle (LNP) technology for RNA delivery to cells outside the liver would be leveraged with Novo Nordisk’s expertise in the areas of clinical translation and R&D for cardiometabolic and rare diseases at large (1).

"We founded NanoVation to enable partners to overcome the challenges of conventional nucleic acid delivery systems,” said Dominik Witzigmann, PhD, co-founder and CEO of NanoVation Therapeutics, in the press release. “This agreement with Novo Nordisk and ongoing work with companies in the cell and gene therapy space validate the potential of our LNP technologies to enable the next generation of life-changing genetic medicines. We are very excited to collaborate with the team at Novo Nordisk.”

The exact number of years covered in the deal was not specified, but NanoVation and Novo Nordisk are slated to collaborate on two lead programs to develop base-editing therapies for select rare genetic diseases, and up to five additional future targets (1), with Novo Nordisk getting a worldwide license to exclusively use NanoVation’s LNP technology. NanoVation, for its part, will receive research funding, up to US$600 million in up-front cash, potential milestone payments, and tiered royalties from future product sales.

“Every genetic drug has a cargo and delivery component, which require dedicated innovation on both,” Karina Thorn, PhD, corporate vice president and head of research, Global Nucleic Acid Therapies, at Novo Nordisk, said in the release. “We look forward to partnering with NanoVation, as the company’s differentiated delivery platform could help Novo Nordisk to advance genetic medicine candidates with curative potential.”

NanoVation was co-founded by Pieter Cullis, PhD, the current Board Chair of the company, who is credited in the press release as being the founding father of LNP technology.

“Genetic medicine is at a pivotal moment and this partnership marks a major milestone for NanoVation as an innovator in nucleic acid delivery,” Cullis said. “By combining NanoVation’s expertise in extrahepatic delivery with Novo Nordisk's expertise in cardiometabolic and rare diseases, we have the potential to create truly transformative therapies.”

The September 18 announcement marks the second new partnership for Novo Nordisk in a week. On September 16, Korro Bio, a Massachusetts-based biopharmaceutical company that develops genetic medicines based on RNA editing, said it would collaborate with Novo Nordisk to develop targets to treat cardiometabolic diseases such as obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases (2).