In insulin resistance pact, Dewpoint adds Novo Nordisk to its pharma-rich pipeline

2023-03-22

Dewpoint Therapeutics has lined up another Big Pharma partner, this time Danish drugmaker Novo Nordisk, in a bet that its strategy of going after molecular clusters known as condensates could have an impact on insulin resistance and diabetic complications. The deal includes $55 million in the near-term from Novo, plus as much as $690 million in clinical, commercial and sales milestones, on top of royalties, for two potential products, the companies said Wednesday. The Danish partner can also look at non-small molecule drugs, which would trigger up to $107.5 million in milestones for each of those products. Boston-based Dewpoint is focused on condensates , which are small flocks of molecules implicated in cell signaling, gene regulation and other roles. Dysregulation of the clusters can potentially lead to disease, according to research from a little over a decade ago. The Boston biotech’s tie-ups already include an HIV collaboration with Merck , a women’s health and cardiovascular disease partnership with Bayer and muscle weakness work with Pfizer . Dewpoint launched with $60 million in January 2019 out of the scientific guidance of the Whitehead Institute’s Richard Young and Max Planck Institute’s Anthony Hyman. A $77 million Series B came in fall 2020 , and a $150 million round disclosed 13 months ago. But since that Series C, the biomolecular condensate field lost one startup when Third Rock Ventures shuttered Faze Medicines . Another biotech, Nereid Therapeutics, took in a $50 million round in fall 2020 , coming out of research from one of the burgeoning field’s early leaders, Princeton professor Clifford Brangwynne. Novo’s investment shows renewed interest in Dewpoint, which last year told Endpoints News it had 20 programs, the first of which was on par to enter the clinic in late-2023. Novo will pair its diabetes and metabolic disease expertise with Dewpoint’s artificial intelligence platform to find modulators of biomolecular condensates. The news comes a week after Novo said it would lower its insulin prices. “We believe that by discovering and hopefully reversing the dysregulation of biomolecular condensates that leads to insulin resistance, we have the potential to profoundly impact the development and clinical course of diabetes, one of the most profound global health challenges affecting society today,” Dewpoint CEO Ameet Nathwani said in a statement.

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