Lumen and Novo Nordisk link up on oral biologics for cardiometabolic disease

In a second cardiometabolic deal signed this month, Danish diabetes care giant Novo Nordisk (NOV: N) has now entered into a collaboration with privately-held US biotech Lumen Bioscience.

The companies plan to evaluate the use of Lumen’s unique drug development and manufacturing platform in the Novo Nordisk’s research and development activities within obesity and other metabolic disorders. Financial terms of the collaboration were not disclosed.

The collaboration builds on previously published research pointing to a diversity of relevant biology within the gastrointestinal tract that can potentially be modulated with therapeutic proteins. Lumen’s unique spirulina-based drug development environment unlocks the potential of orally delivered biologic drugs by manufacturing them with the scalability and affordability more typical of small-molecule drugs.