Zealand Pharma, a biotechnology company transforming the future of metabolic health, has announced a multi-target strategic collaboration with Generate Biomedicines Inc.. Under the collaboration, the companies intend to design and develop multispecific protein therapeutics for obesity and other metabolic diseases using The Generate Platform, which integrates generative AI with high-throughput experimental validation.
The collaboration is intended to accelerate the design and development of protein therapeutics for obesity and metabolic disease by combining Zealand Pharma’s expertise in metabolic health with Generate’s ability to engineer proteins with AI and refine those designs using experimental data toward the desired biological function.
We are thrilled to collaborate with Generate, a leader in AI and structure-enabled drug generation. This collaboration expands our toolbox to include proteins, complementing our existing small-molecule and peptide capabilities and opening new approaches for polypharmacology for innovative therapeutics. This collaboration reflects our strategy of expanding our platform and integrating our metabolic expertise in Copenhagen with the multi-modality expertise in Cambridge to develop next-generation therapeutics for metabolic health.
Utpal Singh, Chief Scientific Officer at Zealand Pharma (in picture)
“We are excited to bring together Zealand Pharma’s deep expertise in peptide therapeutics and metabolic disease with Generate’s cutting-edge computational platform and experimental capabilities to address the continued unmet medical need for patients with cardiometabolic disease,” said Mike Nally, chief executive officer of Generate. “Together, our teams will first define what a great medicine for patients looks like for each of the two initial programs, and then leverage The Generate Platform to design multispecific candidates that meet or exceed that profile.”
Under the terms of the agreement, Generate will use its proprietary generative AI platform to lead research through lead-candidate selection. Zealand Pharma will assume responsibility for subsequent clinical development, regulatory submissions, and worldwide commercialization.
For the two initial programs, Generate will receive USD 30 million up-front and up to USD 35 million in early preclinical milestones, and is eligible for total milestones of nearly USD 1.2 billion, including potential development, regulatory, and commercial milestones, plus tiered royalties on future worldwide net sales of any commercialized products resulting from the collaboration.
Cooley LLP acted as legal advisor to Zealand Pharma. Ropes & Gray LLP acted as legal advisor to Generate.
Zealand Pharma A/S (Nasdaq: ZEAL) is a biotechnology company focused on advancing medicines for obesity and metabolic health. Combining more than 25 years of peptide R&D expertise with a proprietary data platform that leverages advanced data-driven and AI/ML approaches, Zealand Pharma aims to lead a new era in obesity and metabolic health. To date, more than 10 Zealand Pharma-invented drug candidates have entered clinical development, of which two products have reached the market and three candidates are in late-stage development. The company has collaborations with global pharmaceutical and biotechnology partners for research, development, and commercialization. Founded in 1998, Zealand Pharma is headquartered in Copenhagen, Denmark, with a U.S. presence in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Generate (NASDAQ: GENB) is a clinical-stage generative biology company founded at the intersection of machine learning, biological engineering, and medicine, advancing a new era of programmable biology to engineer better drug candidates for patients, faster. The Generate Platform integrates computational design with large-scale biological experimentation, enabling the creation of novel, optimized therapeutics that address historically undruggable and hard-to-drug targets, as well as known targets in new and more effective ways.
