In a groundbreaking development in the pharmaceutical industry, Danish drugmaker Novo Nordisk has entered into a strategic partnership with Valo Health, a US-based startup renowned for its cutting-edge capabilities in AI drug discovery. Novo Nordisk’s investment of $60 million signifies a significant step forward in the quest to find innovative therapies for cardiometabolic diseases.
This partnership aims to harness Valo Health’s Opal platform, which incorporates sophisticated AI algorithms to predict essential drug characteristics while incorporating real-world human data, expediting the drug discovery process. This collaboration has the potential to reshape the landscape of cardiovascular drug development and significantly impact the pharmaceutical industry.
Novo Nordisk’s investment in Valo Health
Novo Nordisk has made a strategic move by investing $60 million in Valo Health, marking the beginning of a transformative partnership in AI drug discovery. This collaboration opens the door for Novo Nordisk to tap into Valo Health’s Opal platform, a state-of-the-art AI-powered system that offers capabilities unmatched by traditional drug discovery methods. Opal is built upon the foundations of Numerate’s technology and boasts predictive abilities in crucial aspects of drug development, including pharmacokinetics, absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion (ADME), toxicity, and functional effects of compounds.
What sets Opal apart is its integration of “real-world” human data and human tissue modeling technology. Valo Health, which acquired Numerate in 2020, has continued to enhance Opal’s capabilities through strategic acquisitions of companies like Tara Biosystems and Courier Therapeutics, specialized in stem cell and protein therapeutics, respectively.
In exchange for its initial investment, Novo Nordisk obtains a valuable license to three preclinical-stage cardiovascular disease programs developed by Valo Health. This agreement also paves the way for potential expansion, encompassing up to 11 candidate programs. The total value of this partnership is an impressive $2.7 billion, which includes research and development (R&D) funding and potential milestone payments, underscoring the commitment to advancing cardiovascular therapies.
AI drug development
The pharmaceutical industry’s embrace of artificial intelligence for drug discovery is steadily gaining momentum, with partnerships continuously emerging to strengthen drugmakers’ computer-aided drug design (CADD) capabilities. AI-based drug discovery has become a focal point for innovation, and Valo Health’s collaboration with Novo Nordisk exemplifies this trend. Recent developments in the field, such as Merck KGaA’s $1.3 billion investment in AI agreements with Exscientia and BenevolentAI, emphasize the industry’s enthusiasm for AI-driven drug development, particularly in oncology, neurology, and immunology.
In their statement regarding the partnership, Novo Nordisk highlighted Opal’s potential to predict compound safety and efficacy, hinting at the prospect of extending the collaboration to encompass a broader spectrum of drug discovery activities. The marriage of artificial intelligence and machine learning with human datasets early in the drug development process promises a deeper understanding of target biology, a vision enthusiastically supported by Novo Nordisk’s Chief Scientific Officer, Marcus Schindler.
According to Marcus Schindler, Novo Nordisk’s Chief Scientific Officer, artificial intelligence and machine learning offer the potential to bring about positive transformations in drug discovery and development. He emphasized the opportunity to utilize human datasets at an early stage of the process, with the goal of enhancing comprehension of target biology. He also commended Valo Health’s unique approach to using these technologies on real-world human data to generate fresh insights and translate them into potential therapeutic solutions.
Valo Health’s ongoing pursuit
While forging partnerships with industry giants like Novo Nordisk, Valo Health is simultaneously advancing its own drug candidates through development. One standout candidate is the small-molecule ROCK 1/2 inhibitor OPL-0401, currently in phase 2 testing for non-proliferative diabetic retinopathy, demonstrating Valo Health’s commitment to pioneering advancements in the field of drug discovery and development.
The partnership between Valo Health and Novo Nordisk represents a significant milestone in the pharmaceutical industry’s ongoing quest to harness the potential of artificial intelligence in drug discovery. With the promise of expediting cardiovascular drug development and the potential for broader applications, this collaboration stands as a testament to the transformative power of AI in the realm of healthcare and therapeutics.
