Zealand forges obesity alliance with AI specialist Generate

Zealand Pharma is adding another element to its programme of weight-loss drug development, partnering with Generate Biomedicines to find new candidates using generative AI.

Generate is in line for an upfront payment of $30 million, plus another $35 million in early preclinical milestones and another $1.2 billion in potential later-stage payments, spread across two initial programmes.

Copenhagen, Denmark-based Zealand is an emerging challenger in the obesity and metabolic health sectors, with a pipeline that includes two candidates in pivotal trials that are partnered with Roche and Boehringer Ingelheim, along with other earlier-stage projects.

The company has not really made its mark in the obesity category yet, as both Roche-partnered amylin analogue petrelintide and Boehringer-partnered glucagon/GLP agonist survodutide have not generated any clinical data that suggests they could displace the current leaders in the market, Eli Lilly's Zepbound (tirzepatide) and Novo's Wegovy (semaglutide).

In a statement, Zealand said that the collaboration will broaden its modality capabilities beyond small molecules and peptides and into multispecific protein therapeutics, whilst also accelerating the use of Generate's AI platform in cardiometabolic disorders.

Incubated by Flagship Pioneering, Generate uses AI to tease out the three-dimensional structure of human proteins, including how they are folded, to help with the design of novel, improved drugs. The platform has attracted a series of other big-ticket alliances, including $1 billion-plus partnerships with Novartis and Amgen.

Earlier this year, Generate raised an impressive $400 million in an IPO on the Nasdaq, allocating the bulk of that (around $300 million) to develop its lead candidate GB-0895, a long-acting anti-TSLP antibody, in patients with severe asthma whose symptoms are inadequately controlled using current therapies.

Its pipeline also includes drugs for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and cancer.

In a statement, the AI company's chief executive, Mike Nally, said the two companies will "define what a great medicine for patients looks like for each of the two initial programmes, and then leverage the Generate platform to design multispecific candidates that meet or exceed that profile."

Under the terms of the deal, Generate will be responsible for early activities through to the selection of lead candidates, with Zealand assuming responsibility for subsequent clinical development, regulatory submissions, and worldwide commercialisation.