Novo reels in Replicate for new cardiometabolic drugs

California biotech Replicate Biosciences will receive up to $550 million from Novo Nordisk in an alliance that aims to track down new drugs for obesity and diabetes.

The partners will develop new therapies based on San Diego-based Replicate's self-replicating RNA (srRNA) technology platform, which can amplify protein expression and allow lower doses to be administered compared to conventional linear mRNA therapies.

The srRNA candidates can be administered at doses an order of magnitude lower than mRNA equivalents, reducing the risk of side effects and, in theory, making them cheaper and easier to produce and administer.

For Danish group Novo Nordisk, the collaboration looks to the long-term future of its diabetes and obesity franchise, currently dominated by GLP-1 agonist-based therapies like Ozempic for diabetes and Wegovy for weight loss, both based on semaglutide.

While they generate blockbuster sales and are driving growth at Novo Nordisk, Ozempic and Wegovy are starting to face strong competition from Eli Lilly's rival therapies Mounjaro and Zepbound, based on dual GIP/GLP-1 agonist tirzepatide, which have been shown to have an efficacy edge in head-to-head clinical trials.

At the same time, there is no shortage of clinical candidates coming through the industry pipeline hoping to muscle into the market share of the established therapies.

This is the first licensing deal signed by Novo Nordisk since new chief executive Maziar Mike Doustdar took over from Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen earlier this year.

Details of the programme are scant at the moment, with the two companies saying they will work on "certain targets for cardiometabolic diseases," with Novo Nordisk getting an exclusive, worldwide license to use the srRNA platform to "develop and commercialise" multiple candidates.

Under the terms of the deal, Replicate will receive an upfront cash payment plus potential milestones in return, as well as tiered royalties on future product sales if any come to market.

"This partnership combines the strength of Replicate's proprietary srRNA vector library with Novo Nordisk's therapeutic and clinical insights to create powerful new opportunities," said the biotech's chief business officer, Rachael Lester.

Replicate's most advanced therapeutic drug candidate targets two cytokines – IL-1 and IL-18 – and is being assessed in preclinical development for its potential to treat diseases like chronic inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), gout, and recurrent pericarditis.

It also has an srRNA-based vaccine for rabies, RBI-4000, in a phase 1 proof-of-concept study, and in February reported solid immunogenicity data in a paper published in the journal Nature Communications.