Omega Therapeutics Surges 107% on Novo Nordisk Obesity R&D Partnership
Shares in Omega Therapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq: OMGA) have surged today following news that the company has entered a research partnership with Novo Nordisk ($NVO) to develop a novel therapeutic for obesity management. The agreement was signed under the existing framework collaboration between Flagship Pioneering and Novo Nordisk to develop a portfolio of transformational medicines.
Novo Nordisk will reimburse R&D costs and has the right to select one target to advance for clinical development. Omega and Pioneering Medicines are eligible to receive up to $532 million in upfront, development and commercial milestone payments, as well as tiered royalties on annual net sales of a licensed product.
The collaboration will leverage Omega’s proprietary platform to develop an epigenomic controller designed to increase metabolic activity and support obesity management.
Commenting on the news, Mahesh Karande, President and Chief Executive Officer of Omega Therapeutics, said, “By harnessing the body’s innate mechanisms to control cellular identity and gene expression, we believe that our epigenomic controllers offer an opportunity to therapeutically modulate genes linked to metabolism in a precise way. We look forward to leveraging our OMEGA platform and pursuing this ambitious strategy with Novo Nordisk to advance transformative developments for people living with obesity.”
Uli Stilz, Head of Novo Nordisk’s Bio Innovation Hub, added, “As the population of people living with obesity grows, it is vitally important that we seek out next generation therapeutic solutions to address the unmet need. Much of the scientific advancement in this area has been focused on appetite regulation, but by looking at new ways to increase energy expenditure, including through controlled epigenomic modulation, there is an opportunity to unlock a new path for intervention. We look forward to working together with Omega and leveraging our complementary capabilities to advance much needed new treatments.”
800 million adults are living with obesity worldwide.
About Omega Therapeutics
Omega Therapeutics is a clinical-stage biotechnology company pioneering the development of a new class of programmable epigenomic mRNA medicines to treat or cure a broad range of diseases. By pre-transcriptionally modulating gene expression, Omega’s approach enables controlled epigenomic modulation of nearly all human genes, including historically undruggable and difficult-to-treat targets, without altering native nucleic acid sequences. Founded in 2017 by Flagship Pioneering following breakthrough research by world-renowned experts in the field of epigenetics, Omega is led by a seasoned and accomplished leadership team with a track record of innovation and operational excellence. The Company is committed to revolutionizing genomic medicine and has a diverse pipeline of therapeutic candidates derived from its OMEGA platform spanning oncology, regenerative medicine, multigenic diseases including immunology, and select monogenic diseases.
