Aug. 30 Quick Takes: With Embark acquisition, Novo gains another obesity asset
Plus: Epigenome editing company Epigenic raises $32M series A and updates from Outlook, InflaRx, Zealand and FDA
Novo Nordisk A/S (CSE:NVO; NYSE:NOVO B) will add another program for obesity and metabolic diseases to its portfolio via the acquisition of Embark Biotech ApS, a company spun out in 2017 from the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Basic Metabolic Research. The program’s target is undisclosed, but the company has said it suppresses appetite and modulates insulin sensitivity — physiological mechanisms shared by incretins and many other clinical obesity targets — and also increases energy expenditure. Embark VP of Research Jakob Bondo Hansen is among the authors of a 2021 paper describing modulation of GPR3 to address metabolic disease in mice by increasing mitochondrial uncoupling, a process through which energy that would have been stored as fat is instead lost as heat. Embark previously listed GPR3 as a novel target on its website.
Novo will pay €15 million ($16.2 million) up front, and Embark shareholders are eligible for another €456 million in milestones. Novo also entered an R&D collaboration with Embark Laboratories, a company advancing additional programs based on Embark Biotech’s discoveries, giving the pharma options to acquire more assets. This month, Novo’s acquisition of Inversago Pharma Inc. gave it a program targeting CB1 for obesity...