Valo Health bags $2.7bn AI partnership with Novo Nordisk

The Danish drug maker plans to pay up to $2.7bn to Flagship Pioneering-incubated Valo Health for its AI-enabled small molecule discovery and human genetic data platform. Novo Nordisk gets a license to three preclinical-stage cardiovascular disease programmes from Valo Health in return for its initial investment and is prepared to expand the partnership to cover 11 candidates. The total value of the deal is $2.7 billion, plus R&D funding and potential milestone payments.

Valo will receive an upfront payment and a potential near-term milestone payment of $60m, the companies said in a statement on Monday (27th Sept). Valo could receive up to $2.7bn if a milestone of 11 programmes is reached, as well as R&D funding and potential royalty payments. The deal comes shortly after Valo Health forged a strategic partnership with contract research organisation (CRO) Charles River Laboratories, combining Opal with CRL’s drug discovery and development capabilities.3

Marcus Schindler, chief scientific officer of Novo Nordisk had said, “Artificial intelligence and machine learning hold the promise to positively impact drug discovery and development, in particular enabling our vision of leveraging human datasets early in the process, which should lead to a better understanding of target biology”. “Valo brings a differentiated and powerful approach to using these technologies on real-world human data to generate new insights and translate them into potential therapeutics,” he added.

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