Novo Nordisk spends $60M on advanced AI in search of new cardiovascular medications
Novo Nordisk announced a new collaboration with Valo Health, a healthcare technology company focused on using artificial intelligence (AI) technology to identify new drug treatments for cardiovascular disease (CVD).
As part of the agreement, Novo Nordisk will gain access to Valo’s Opal Computational Platform, which provides users with “real-world patient data, AI-enabled small molecule discovery and the Biowire human tissue modelling platform designed to speed up the discovery and development process.” The company is also licensing three preclinical drug discovery programs from Valo that were all originally discovered using the Opal platform.
Novo Nordisk is paying Valo $60 million upfront, and the agreement leaves room for up to $2.7 billion in future payments plus additional potential royalty payments. As the two companies continue to work together, they say they aim to “derive novel insights from human genetic and longitudinal patient data in cardiovascular disease.”
“AI 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,” Marcus Schindler, executive vice president and chief scientific officer of Novo Nordisk, said in a prepared statement announcing the news. “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 for the benefit of patients suffering from cardiometabolic conditions. I am very much looking forward to our collaboration.”
“We are excited to implement the full spectrum of our platform spanning from disease characterization through clinical development as we aim to deliver new therapeutics to benefit patients living with some of the most prevalent chronic diseases of our time,” added David Berry, Valo’s founder and CEO.
Michael has more than 18 years of experience as a professional writer and editor. He has written at length about cardiology, radiology, artificial intelligence and other key healthcare topics.