Novo Nordisk and Variant Bio Collaborate on Metabolic Disease Research, Focusing on Diverse Populations

Collaboration Overview:

Novo Nordisk and Variant Bio have entered a multi-year research partnership to discover novel targets for the treatment of metabolic diseases, including obesity123.

Research Focus:

The collaboration aims to identify and validate multiple novel targets with sufficient human genetic evidence to initiate human-centric drug discovery programs, focusing on diverse populations beyond European-ancestry studies123.

VB-Inference Platform:

The partnership leverages Variant Bio's innovative VB-Inference analysis platform, which integrates whole genomes with deep phenotyping and rich multi-omic data using statistical genetics and machine learning to identify novel targets with strong genetic evidence and clear therapeutic hypotheses123.

Financial Terms:

Novo Nordisk will pay Variant Bio an upfront payment and additional near-term R&D funding totaling up to $50 million, plus potential option and milestone payments on targets that arise from the collaboration123.

Benefit-Sharing Program:

Consistent with Variant Bio's long-term benefit-sharing program, this partnership will trigger the distribution of financial benefits to partner communities around the world who contributed their data to genomic research123.

Strategic Impact:

The collaboration signals a new chapter of growth for Variant Bio and demonstrates the value of its potential to enable the development of novel therapeutics based on results from its innovative genomic studies23.

Sources:

1. https://www.bariatricnews.net/post/variant-bio-and-novo-nordisk-sign-multi-year-research-partnership-to-discover-novel-targets-for-meta

2. https://www.biospace.com/press-releases/variant-bio-announces-multi-year-research-partnership-with-novo-nordisk-to-discover-novel-targets-for-metabolic-disease

3. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/variant-bio-announces-multi-year-research-partnership-with-novo-nordisk-to-discover-novel-targets-for-metabolic-disease-302343496.html