Novo’s attempted rebrand got off to a shaky start this week with the news that the pharma had walked away from a $285 million biobucks pact to develop a monthly weight loss drug after less than two years.
The multi-pronged partnership, which was signed in November 2024, centered on using Ascendis’ TransCon platform to develop candidates in metabolic diseases like obesity and diabetes. The lead program was meant to be a once-monthly GLP-1 receptor agonist that was initially focused on both of these areas.
The TransCon tech is named after “transient conjugation,” which Ascendis has described as the company’s “unique ability to temporarily (transiently) link an inert carrier to a parent drug with known biology.” The wide-ranging tech is meant to help ensure drugs either act systemically throughout the body or locally.
The deal, penned back in November 2024, gave Novo—which rebranded from Novo Nordisk yesterday—the license to use the platform for the lead GLP-1 program, with Ascendis in line for up to $285 million in combined upfront, development and regulatory milestone payments, plus potential tiered royalties. More money could have come Ascendis’ way if Novo had chosen to expand the agreement to cover other metabolic or cardiovascular disease candidates, with milestone payments totaling $77.5 million attached to each one.
Instead, Denmark-based Ascendis revealed Monday that Novo had terminated the pact. As a result, Ascendis will now itself pursue development of TransCon Semaglutide, a once-monthly prodrug of the ingredient in Novo’s blockbuster Wegovy.
The TransCon platform has already produced FDA-approved products like Yuviwel, a once-weekly injection to treat children with a rare genetic disorder that causes dwarfism, as well as Skytrofa, a long-acting growth hormone for children, and Yorvipath, a hormone replacement therapy for hypoparathyroidism.
“Our mission is to always make a meaningful difference for patients and Ascendis now plans to initiate multiple new programs in cardiovascular and metabolic diseases, including obesity, focusing where the unmet medical needs are greatest,” Ascendis CEO Jan Mikkelsen said in the Sept. 14 post-market release.
“Our algorithm for product innovation has delivered three consecutive approved products and we are excited to apply our versatile TransCon platform with the same disciplined approach across these therapeutic areas, consistent with Vision 2030,” Mikkelsen added.
A monthly GLP-1 drug has been a long-running ambition at Novo. A few months before the Ascendis deal in 2024, the Danish pharma scrapped a once-monthly dual GLP-1/GIP receptor agonist over underwhelming early data.
Last year, Novo jumped into a heated bidding war with Pfizer over Metsera and its monthly-dosed GLP-1 receptor agonist. While Novo’s bid ultimately lost out, CEO Mike Doustdar suggested earlier this year that the company remained on the lookout for a similar asset.
Novo told Fierce this morning that the company won't provide any details around the circumstances of the discontinuation of the Ascendis partnership. When asked if the pharma is still looking for a monthly GLP-1 option to acquire, a spokesperson said that “develop[ing] medicines that can be given as less frequent injections than what is currently on the market ... is a focus for our R&D efforts.”
“We pursue a range of different innovation tracks in this regard, both internally and in collaboration with external partners, and we regularly review our pipeline of internal and partnered programs,” the spokesperson told Fierce.
Walking away from Ascendis marks the latest acceptance by Novo’s current leadership that some of the partnerships signed under the tenure of former CEO Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen haven’t gone to plan. Last month, the company’s chief financial officer confirmed to Fierce that the pharma had given up on pursuing any candidates from the $1.1 billion acquisition of Inversago Pharma back in 2023.
The company has tasted renewed success thanks to the rollout of oral Wegovy, but the pharma’s pipeline remains a cause for concern. Only last week, Novo gave up on two more phase 3 trials of ziltivekimab, further eroding the prospects for a molecule that analysts had once tipped as a potential blockbuster.