BC Business
The agreement with NanoVation marks the second big recent deal that a B.C. biotech startup has struck with the Danish multinational
If you read this headline and felt some déjà vu, you’re likely not alone. Last year, Vancouver-based Aspect Biosystems inked a US$2.6 billion deal with global pharmaceutical giant Novo Nordisk. This time around, another venture that was spun out of UBC, NanoVation Therapeutics, has struck an agreement with Novo Nordisk.
NanoVation, a platform company that is developing innovative technologies to overcome the barriers of nucleic avid delivery, announced a US$600 million multi-year partnership with the Danish multinational firm to advance the development of novel genetic medicines targeting cardiometabolic and rare diseases.
The two companies will collaborate on two lead programs to develop therapies for certain rare genetic diseases. “We founded NanoVation to enable partners to overcome the challenges of conventional nucleic acid delivery systems,” said Dominik Witzigmann, co-founder and CEO of NanoVation, in a release. “This agreement with Novo Nordisk and ongoing work with companies in the cell and gene therapy space is validation of the potential of our LNP [lipid nanoparticle] technologies to enable the next generation of life-changing genetic medicines. We are very excited to collaborate with the team at Novo Nordisk.”
NanoVation was co-founded by Pieter Cullis, who developed the LNP drug delivery platform used today in mRNA vaccines. “Genetic medicine is at a pivotal moment and this partnership marks a major milestone for NanoVation as an innovator in nucleic acid delivery,” said Cullis. “By combining NanoVation’s expertise in extrahepatic delivery with Novo Nordisk’s expertise in cardiometabolic and rare diseases we have the potential to create truly transformative therapies.”