Novo Nordisk, which relies on the GLP-1 weight loss pill, is aggressively acquiring its product pipeline to gain weight.
On October 16th local time, the Danish pharmaceutical giant Novo Nordisk announced on its official website that the company has agreed to acquire the hypertension treatment drug octaurenone from KBP Biosciences for up to $1.3 billion. The acquisition is expected to be completed before the end of 2023.
KBP Biosciences is a biotechnology company headquartered in Singapore, specializing in the discovery, development, and commercialization of innovative small molecule therapies for the treatment of severe heart, kidney, and infectious diseases that have not yet been met with medical needs. The KBP Biosciences pipeline includes four new candidate drugs, two of which are currently in clinical development stage.
According to Novo Nordisk, ocurenone is a small molecule non steroidal corticosteroid receptor antagonist administered orally for the treatment of uncontrolled hypertension. Uncontrolled hypertension refers to a condition where a patient's blood pressure remains high after receiving two or more antihypertensive treatments. In addition, hypertension is the main risk factor for cardiovascular events, heart failure, chronic kidney disease, and other diseases. It is expected that octurenone will also help address the unmet needs of patients with cardiovascular disease and chronic kidney disease.
At present, octaurenone has been studied in 9 clinical trials, including the Phase 2 BLOCK CKD trial. The BLOCK CKD trial reached the main endpoint, and the results showed clinically significant and statistically significant improvements in systolic blood pressure (SBP) from baseline to day 84 in patients with stage 3b/4 CKD and uncontrolled hypertension. There were no reports of severe hyperkalemia or acute kidney injury related to ocurenone in the experiment.
Novo Nordisk also mentioned that the Phase 3 trial of CLARION-CKD has been launched in the United States, Europe, and Asia, and is expected to launch Phase 3 trials for other indications of cardiovascular and kidney diseases in the coming years, aiming to maximize the full potential of ocurenone.
The history of Novo Nordisk can be traced back to 1923, with its headquarters in Copenhagen, Denmark. It was first known globally for its insulin products, and in the past two years, it has received greater attention due to GLP-1 weight loss drugs such as Smeglutide. From the perspective of product pipeline, Novo Nordisk's business covers diabetes, obesity, rare diseases, Alzheimer's disease, growth disorders, cardiovascular diseases and other fields.
For the acquisition of hypertension treatment drugs, Novo Nordisk pointed out that this will supplement the company's current development plans in cardiovascular disease and chronic kidney disease. This agreement is closely consistent with the company's strategic focus, that is, expanding from the core of diabetes to other serious chronic diseases, including helping more patients with unmet medical needs through new drug models.
This is not the first time that Novo Nordisk has invested heavily in the field of cardiovascular disease. At the end of September this year, Novo Nordisk reached an agreement with Valo Health, an American technology company, to use artificial intelligence (AI) to discover and develop treatments for heart metabolic diseases such as heart disease, stroke and diabetes. According to the agreement, Valo will receive a prepayment of $60 million and potential recent milestone payments, with the possibility of receiving milestone payments for up to 11 projects, totaling up to $2.7 billion, plus research and development funds and potential royalty fees.
Recently, Novo Nordisk has also made frequent moves. On August 10th local time, Novo Nordisk and Inversago Pharma announced that if certain development and commercial milestones are achieved, Novo Nordisk will acquire Inversago for up to $1.075 billion in cash. Inversago is a Canadian based company, whose CB1 receptor based therapy can be used to treat obesity, diabetes and complications related to metabolic disorders.