Novo Holdings announces launch of new company Orbis Medicines

Denmark-based life sciences investor Novo Holdings today announced it had launched Orbis Medicines, a leader in macrocycle drug discovery, to advance the development of next-generation oral macrocycle drugs.

Macrocycles are a large and diverse family of compounds with highly desirable therapeutic properties, defined by the presence of a cyclic structure. Their therapeutic potential has been largely untapped due to historic challenges in their design. The launch of Orbis Medicines was accompanied by a 26 million-euro ($2.82 million) financing round co-led by Novo Holdings and Forbion.

Orbis is powered by a robust and automated chemistry platform called nGen, the first to systematically deliver oral macrocycle drug candidates suitable for both intra- and extracellular targets. With nGen, Orbis Medicines is working to define a new era for macrocycle drugs and enable the treatment of many more patients who can benefit from them.