- Deep Apple Therapeutics Announces Collaboration with Novo Nordisk to Discover and Develop Oral Therapies for Cardiometabolic Diseases

The partnership aims to develop first-in-class, small-molecule therapies targeting a novel non-incretin GPCR target for cardiometabolic diseases.

Deep Apple is eligible to receive up to $812 million, including a down payment, research costs, and milestone payments.

Deep Apple Therapeutics, Inc. announced a research collaboration and exclusive worldwide licensing agreement with Novo Nordisk to discover, develop and commercialize oral small-molecule therapies targeting a novel non-incretin GPCR target for cardiometabolic diseases, including obesity.

Under the terms of the agreement, Deep Apple will discover and optimize compounds using its proprietary drug discovery platform, which combines machine learning-powered virtual detection with cryo-electron microscopy-enabled structural biology (cryo-EM) to dramatically improve speed, quality, and novelty in lead generation and optimization.

Novo Nordisk will receive exclusive global rights to develop, manufacture and commercialize the resulting compounds and products in all indications. Both companies will collaborate on the research plan, and the transfer of the program to Novo Nordisk will take place immediately prior to the start of the studies that enable the IND.

Deep Apple may receive a down payment, research costs, and milestone payments from Novo Nordisk. In total, Deep Apple will be able to receive up to $812 million in payments, in addition to possible royalties from the sales of any products resulting from the collaboration.

"Novo Nordisk is a global leader with a long history of providing transformative treatments for cardiometabolic diseases, and the Deep Apple team is excited about the opportunity to collaborate with them," said Spiros Liras, Ph.D., CEO of Deep Apple and venture capital partner at Apple Tree Partners (ATP). "This program highlights our platform's ability to identify powerful new leads in a matter of months, and the collaboration with Novo Nordisk will allow us to drive a pioneering incretin-free program for cardiometabolic diseases."

"Novo Nordisk is developing a range of potential oral medications for cardiometabolic diseases in a variety of modalities and therapeutic targets, as we know that people living with these diseases have different needs and preferences," said Jacob Sten Petersen, senior vice president, Diabetes, Obesity and MASH therapeutic area, Novo Nordisk. "We look forward to further exploring this novel therapeutic target based on Deep Apple's AI-based platform and our expertise in small molecule drug discovery."

The target is a non-incretin G-protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) that is well-suited to Deep Apple's platform, which captures the dynamics and movement of GPCRs and other proteins in different conformations to reveal new pockets that can be coupled with Deep Apple's proprietary virtual libraries.