Vivtex receives up to 2.1 billion dollars from Novo Nordisk

(CONNECT) Vivtex and Novo Nordisk will jointly develop next-generation oral biologics for the treatment of obesity, diabetes and related comorbidities, according to a statement from the Danish pharmaceutical company. To this end, the biotech company Vivtex, based in the Bio-Technopark Schlieren-Zurich and Cambridge, will license selected technologies for the development of oral drugs to Novo Nordisk. In return, Vivtex is entitled to an upfront payment, research funding and milestone payments totaling up to 2.1 billion dollars as well as tiered royalties on future product sales.

The aim of the collaboration is the oral administration of biologics, which have so far only been injectable due to their poor absorption in the gastrointestinal tract. To this end, Novo Nordisk will leverage its proven expertise in peptide and protein therapeutics with Vivtex's proprietary platform for gastrointestinal screening and formulation.

"The oral administration of biologics is one of the biggest challenges in drug development," Vivtex co-founder and CEO Dr. Thomas von Erlach is quoted as saying. "Vivtex was founded to systematically solve this problem by combining high-throughput experimentation with computational and AI-driven analytics. The partnership with Novo Nordisk allows us to apply our platform in key areas of metabolic disease with the goal of enabling oral therapies that would otherwise need to be injected."

Once the research has been completed and the formulation selected, Novo Nordisk assumes responsibility for global development. The Danish company is also responsible for the regulatory activities, production and marketing of all resulting products. ce/mm