Valo Health and Novo Nordisk to collaborate to discover and develop novel treatments for cardiometabolic diseases

Novo Nordisk A/S and Valo Health, Inc. announced they have entered into an agreement to discover and develop novel treatments for cardiometabolic diseases based on Valo’s large human dataset and computation powered by artificial intelligence (AI).

The collaboration between the two organizations will leverage the capabilities of Valo’s Opal Computational Platform™ including access to real-world patient data, AI-enabled small molecule discovery and Biowire® human tissue modelling platform designed to speed up the discovery and development process.

Valo’s preclinical capabilities enable identification and validation of novel druggable targets, as well as development of drug candidates against these targets, and can help predict compound safety and efficacy.

In addition to target discovery and validation as part of the collaboration, Novo Nordisk is licensing three preclinical drug discovery programmes in cardiovascular diseases discovered and developed by Valo using the Opal Computational Platform™.

Under the terms of the agreement, Valo will receive an upfront payment and a potential near-term milestone payment, totalling 60 million US dollars, and is eligible to receive milestone payments for up to 11 programmes, totalling up to 2.7 billion dollars, plus R&D funding and potential royalty payments. The partnership between Novo Nordisk and Valo will leverage key joint capabilities in human data and genetics with a stronghold in cardiometabolic diseases.

“Artificial Intelligence and machine learning hold the promise to positively impact drug discovery and development, in particular enabling our vision of leveraging human datasets early in the process, which should lead to a better understanding of target biology,” said Marcus Schindler, executive vice president and chief scientific officer of Novo Nordisk. “Valo brings a differentiated and powerful approach to using these technologies on real-world human data to generate new insights and translate them into potential therapeutics for the benefit of patients suffering from cardiometabolic conditions. I am very much looking forward to our collaboration.”

By securing access to Valo’s proprietary Opal Computational Platform™, Novo Nordisk complements its existing technology base. The collaboration allows for a close partnership between the two companies, with activities that could span the entire drug discovery continuum. Novo Nordisk and Valo plan to work together to derive novel insights from human genetic and longitudinal patient data in cardiovascular disease.

“Partnering with Novo Nordisk, a leader in cardiometabolic disease, creates a unique opportunity to continue to deploy our Opal Computational Platform™ at scale in the discovery and development of novel cardiometabolic therapeutics,” said Valo CEO and founder David Berry. “We are excited to implement the full spectrum of our platform spanning from disease characterization through clinical development as we aim to deliver new therapeutics to benefit patients living with some of the most prevalent chronic diseases of our time.”

This article was first published on 25 September by Novo Nordisk.