Novo Nordisk and Korro Bio Cardiometabolic Treatments
To treat cardiometabolic illnesses, Novo Nordisk will develop RNA editing candidates for two targets using Korro Bio's OPERA technology
On September 16, 2024, Korro Bio, a Massachusetts-based biopharmaceutical company that develops genetic therapeutics based on RNA editing, announced a collaboration with Novo Nordisk to discover targets to treat cardiometabolic disorders including as obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. Novo Nordisk will collaborate with Korro using the Oligonucleotide Promoted Editing of RNA (OPERA) platform.
As Korro puts it: "RNA editing can specifically and efficiently modulate protein function, potentially enabling access to previously undruggable targets for cardiometabolic diseases". OPERA, the company's program, employs "an oligonucleotide to co-opt a natural process in the human body to make changes in mRNA [messenger RNA] encoding the protein, leaving the DNA genome unaltered, thus aiming to bring a pharmacologically titratable approach using genetic medicine".
"Novo Nordisk is a global leader in the discovery, development, and commercialization of therapies for cardiometabolic diseases," stated Dr. Ram Aiyar, Korro's CEO and president, in a news statement.“This collaboration enables us to use our proprietary technologies and capabilities in RNA editing to develop potential new treatments for people living with chronic diseases without impacting our internal pipeline focus. This partnership will expand the opportunity to potentially bring targeted RNA editing to diseases with high prevalence.”
"We are excited to partner with Korro on its differentiated RNA editing platform as we explore novel technologies to address the unmet need for people living with cardiometabolic diseases," said Uli Stilz, head of Novo Nordisk's Bio Innovation Hub, according to the Korro press release. "Korro's platform seeks to provide a titratable, transitory, and highly targeted editing technique at the RNA level, with the potential to transform care. With our extensive expertise of cardiometabolic disorders and Korro's novel methodology, we have the opportunity to build a new paradigm of treatment modalities for cardiometabolic diseases by attacking hitherto intractable targets."
Korro is eligible for up to $530 million in upfront, development, and commercial milestone payments as part of the agreement. The company will also get tiered royalties and R&D support. Korro will handle preclinical development, while Novo Nordisk will advance the medicine through clinical trials.
This collaboration builds on Novo Nordisk's recent intentions to increase treatments for these disorders. In June 2024, the company announced that it would expand its Clayton, NC facility by investing $4.1 billion (approximately DKK27 billion) in a fill/finish manufacturing facility to increase production of current and future injectable therapeutics for obesity and other serious chronic diseases. The investment is one of the company's largest, and it will comprise 1.4 million square feet of production space for aseptic manufacturing and finished production processes, more than doubling the aggregate square footage of the company's existing North Carolina plants. The new facility is planned to be finished by 2029.
Novo Nordisk's president and CEO, Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen, stated in a press release that the company's expansion and continued investment in global production will enable it to serve millions more people with serious chronic diseases in the future. "This is yet another real signal of our efforts to scale up our production to meet the growing global need for our life-changing medicines and the patients of tomorrow."
Source: Korro Bio, Novo Nordisk
