Metaphore Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

2024年5月9日，诺和诺德与Metaphore达成合作协议，共同开发2款新一代减重药物，诺和诺德支付最高不超过6亿美元的预付款及里程碑金额，以及一定比例的销售分成。 2022年5月，诺和诺德与Flagship达成合作，研发心血管代谢和罕见病药物，这一次合作则为进一步的拓展。 Metaphore的MIMiC 平台模仿及发展了药效团（Pharmacophore）的功能，这是天然生物活性分子之间相互作用的一组基本成分。MIMiC平台创建了一个精确的模型，可以将这些组分铸造成原始的功能模仿品。与机器学习相结合，进化出新的模拟化合物，并对其功能、特异性和选择性进行调整和优化。 诺和诺德在GLP-1领域做了很多开创性的工作，如今司美格鲁肽年销售额超过200亿美元并仍处在高速增长阶段。与此同时，诺和诺德积极布局各种新技术，以开发新一代代谢尤其是减重药物。 内容来源于网络，如有侵权，请联系删除。

Novo Nordisk is pairing up with another Flagship-founded biotech to create new obesity medications, and GLP-1 remains in the frame. The Danish pharma giant, which leads the GLP-1 field alongside Eli Lilly, will tap into the “molecular mimicry” work at Metaphore Biotechnologies to make one or two obesity management therapeutics, the companies said Thursday morning. Novo will deliver up to $600 million in upfront payments and biobucks to Metaphore and Flagship’s Pioneering Medicines. Novo and Pioneering Medicines have a broad relationship that also includes an obesity pact with Omega Therapeutics . You’ll get access to free articles each month, plus you can customize what newsletters get delivered to your inbox each week, including breaking news.

Novo Nordisk is doubling down on its quest for novel obesity medicines, inking a potentially lucrative deal with Flagship Pioneering start-up Metaphore Biotechnologies to develop up to two multitarget therapeutics using the biotech's MIMIC platform.The Danish drugmaker could shell out up to $600 million in upfront and milestone payments, plus royalties, spurring hopes that Metaphore's machine learning-powered molecular mimicry approach could unlock a new class of longer-acting, more potent medicines aimed at the GLP-1 receptor and related obesity pathways.'Molecular mimics'"Metaphore's platform aims to mimic the interactions between molecules with impressive accuracy by capturing their natural dynamics at the point of interface, potentially leading to therapeutics that require infrequent dosing," noted Uli Stilz, head of Novo Nordisk's Bio Innovation Hub. The approach systematically isolates pharmacophores – the essential features where a drug binds its target – and designs "molecular mimics" that are then enhanced with fine-tuned therapeutic properties like function, selectivity, and multi-targeting.The collaboration stems from Novo Nordisk's strategic partnership with Flagship Pioneering from 2022. It also marks the third tie-up under the alliance following deals with Cellarity and Omega Therapeutics announced earlier the year to develop new treatments for obesity and metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH).As part of the latest deal, the partners will work toward advancing the programmes through to preclinical development, after which Novo Nordisk could decide to move them into clinical testing.Future financing roundIn addition to the up to $600 million in upfront, development and commercial milestones, and potential royalties to be split with Pioneering Medicines, Flagship's in-house drug development unit, Novo Nordisk will also cover research costs and participate in a future financing round for Metaphore. The biotech, which launched in 2023 with $50 million from Flagship, told FirstWord it had no additional details about the financing round "to share at this time."With over 800 million adults globally living with obesity, the pharmaceutical industry has been actively seeking to develop new treatments that could challenge Novo Nordisk's pole position with Wegovy (semaglutide). For its part, the Danish drugmaker continues to innovate in the space as well, with an obesity pipeline that includes a once daily oral version of Wegovy, as well as CagriSema, a fixed-dose, once-weekly injection combining semaglutide with amylin analogue cagrilintide. Both those programmes are currently in Phase III.The company is also working on once-daily oral and once-weekly subcutaneous forms of amycretin, a long-acting co-agonist of GLP-1 and amylin.