Novo Nordisk extends research collaboration with UK drug discovery firm
The companies initially agreed on a 12-month collaboration in December 2018, to work on Network-Driven Drug Discovery (NDD), a technology platform developed by e-therapeutics.
NDD employs artificial intelligence (AI) to process biological data, enabling researchers to identify likely proteins that could be disrupted to treat the disease.
Under the new agreement, e-therapeutics will now also use its Genome-Associated Interaction Networks (GAINs) technology to analyse population genomics data from patients with type 2 diabetes.
Ray Barlow, CEO at e-therapeutics, said in a statement that GAINs has the potential to “improve the understanding of complex diseases, identify previously unknown disease processes and pathways and facilitate the discovery of new drugs.”
He added that the platform, which the company launched two months ago, has potentially broad application in therapeutic, diagnostic, and biomarker fields.
The amendment extends the original contract by six months to June 2020 and is the first research agreement for e-therapeutics which includes GAINs.
According to e-therapeutics, output from the GAINs collaboration can be included in any subsequent work and commercial agreement.
Additionally, per the agreement, Novo Nordisk can license relevant intellectual property generated under the collaboration, although any future license would require mutual agreement on the commercial terms.
