The Copenhagen-based company is eligible to receive up to USD 1.4 billion in upfront and potential development and commercial milestone payments, plus tiered royalties on future product sales. Novo Nordisk will also make a strategic investment in Orbis Medicines, underscoring its confidence in the company’s nGen platform and long-term potential.

The multi-target collaboration combines Novo Nordisk’s leadership in obesity and cardiometabolic disease with Orbis Medicines’ AI-enabled macrocycle discovery platform. It aims to develop orally bioavailable macrocycle drug candidates, known as nCycles, for cardiometabolic targets that have historically been reachable only through injectable biologics.

“This collaboration reinforces that the future of oral biologic drug discovery lies at the intersection of AI, proprietary experimental macrocycle datasets, and world-class automated chemistry,” says Morten Graugaard, CEO, Orbis Medicines. “Our nGen platform continuously learns from data generated by our high-throughput chemistry and screening platform to design orally bioavailable macrocycles with the potential to replace injectable medicines. 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.”

Orbis Medicines’ nGen platform integrates generative AI with high-throughput synthesis capabilities. Its multi-parameter optimization engine designs nCycles with favorable drug-like properties, continuously refined through one of the industry’s largest experimental macrocycle datasets, which the company generates in real time via its lab-in-the-loop approach. The platform is designed to overcome the longstanding oral bioavailability and drug-likeness limitations that have historically constrained macrocycle therapeutics.

“Orbis Medicines has developed a differentiated platform for macrocycle drug discovery, combining deep expertise in macrocycle chemistry with AI-enabled molecular design,” says Brian Vandahl, senior vice president, Therapeutics Discovery, Novo Nordisk. “We believe this collaboration has the potential to unlock innovative oral treatment options for patients with cardiometabolic diseases while expanding the possibilities of macrocycle therapeutics.”

Orbis Medicines has raised EUR 116 million in venture funding to date, including a EUR 90 million Series A round led by NEA with participation from Lilly Ventures, Cormorant, EIFO, Forbion, and Novo Holdings. The company is based in Copenhagen, Denmark, and Lausanne, Switzerland.