Novo Nordisk has planted another seed to fuel the blossoming of its obesity business, inking an $812 million deal with Deep Apple Therapeutics to access small molecules against a non-incretin GPCR target.
Apple Tree Partners founded the biotech—and committed $52 million in series A funding—to discover small-molecule drug candidates by screening artificial-intelligence-generated virtual libraries. Deep Apple has used the cash and technology to establish a pipeline that includes three obesity programs. The biotech has yet to name its targets but has revealed two of the programs are focused on receptors other than GLP-1.
Novo has agreed to pay up to $812 million, including an upfront payment, research costs and milestones, for a global license to small molecules aimed at a GPCR target that isn’t an incretin. GLP-1 and GIP, the targets of today’s leading obesity drugs, are incretins. The target has uses in cardiometabolic diseases including obesity.
The collaborators said the target is well suited to Deep Apple’s platform, highlighting the biotech’s use of cryo-electron microscopy to capture the dynamics and motion of GPCRs in different conformations to reveal novel binding pockets. Deep Apple pairs its structural biology capabilities with virtual libraries to identify small molecules that dock in the binding sites.
Deep Apple will use its platform to discover and optimize compounds against the target. Novo will work with Deep Apple on the research plan and take charge just before IND-enabling studies get underway.
The pact is the latest in a series of deals Novo has struck since its next-generation obesity prospect CagriSema underwhelmed in phase 3 late last year. Seeking to hit back after rival Eli Lilly claimed victory in the battle of the current-generation products, Novo hyped CagriSema only for the weight loss data to fall short of its own target in the phase 3 trial.
Since then, Novo has offered $50 million in upfront and near-term funding to Variant Bio, committed $190 million in near-term payments to expand a pact with Valo Health, agreed to pay Gensaic up to $354 million per target, given United Laboratories $200 million for a triple agonist and bet $200 million and $75 million in upfront and near-term payments on preclinical prospects from, respectively, Septerna and Lexicon Pharmaceuticals.