The multi-drug partnership with Orbis Medicines—which Novo has backed since the biotech’s seed rounds—is focused on cardiometabolic targets, but the technology at the center of the deal could deliver oral weight loss candidates. Obesity rival Eli Lilly has also helped fund Orbis.
Newly renamed Novo has joined forces with fellow Danish biotech Orbis Medicines in a multi-drug deal worth up to $1.4 billion. The agreement focuses on the development of oral cardiometabolic drugs, particularly a class of treatments called macrocycles.
The partnership, announced Thursday, is intended to produce orally bioavailable macrocycle drug candidates for cardiometabolic targets, though the companies did not elaborate on which ones.
Orbis’ AI-based platform is designed to accelerate discovery of orally available biologics via ring-shaped molecules. The biotech joins dozens of others in the hunt for next-generation drugs for weight loss, riding the wave of GLP-1 pill success led by Novo’s Wegovy and main rival Eli Lilly’s Foundayo.
Novo was an early supporter in Orbis’ seed rounds as well as the €90 million ($93.2 million at the time) series A funding round in early 2025, when Lilly also joined as a backer. This week, Novo became the first to forge an official partnership with Orbis. As part of Thursday’s deal, Novo will also make a strategic investment in the biotech, according to a press release issued by Orbis.
Orbis’ drug delivery technology allows for complex biologics to be available in pill form via its nCycle platform built by an AI model the company calls nGen to create synthetic molecules that mimic natural macrocycles. Biologics have long been a challenge to administer orally without advanced delivery technology that keep them from breaking down in the gut.
While Novo has fallen behind Lilly in sales of injectable GLP-1s, the pharma giant has pulled ahead in the oral market with its Wegovy pill. But Lilly is gaining ground with Foundayo.
The cardio-focused pact “reinforces that the future of oral biologic drug discovery lies at the intersection of AI, proprietary experimental macrocycle datasets and world-class automated chemistry,” Orbis CEO Morten Graugaard said in a prepared statement. “Together with Novo, we have an opportunity to unlock a new generation of oral medicines for cardiometabolic diseases and demonstrate the transformative potential of AI-enabled macrocycle drug discovery.”
Other biopharmas investing in macrocycle development include Novartis, which in February formed an alliance with peptide maker Unnatural Products worth up to $1.7 billion. Biogen jumped on board last year in collaboration with Dayra Therapeutics for $50 million up front in a deal aimed at immunological conditions, and Boehringer Ingelheim entered a research partnership with Circle Pharma in 2024 worth up to $607 million to investigate macrocycle treatments for cancer.
