Partnership opportunities in research, clinical development, and commercialisation

We are looking for partners with complementary expertise in our therapy areas and adjacent disease areas. We are interested in partners with expertise in novel modalities and technologies, working across early research through clinical development to commercialisation.

We are excited to learn more about novel targets, potentially disease-modifying compounds, and technologies that address unmet medical needs for people living with a serious chronic disease. 

Our legacy is in insulin innovation and diabetes care. In recent years, we have expanded our portfolio to offer treatments in other therapy areas, including obesity, cardiovascular disease and liver disease.

We have also expanded into a variety of rare blood and endocrine disorders. We are interested in partnering with specialists who can help us in these areas, as well as in adjacent areas.

Together, we can generate innovation by combining our expertise and efforts. Here you will find our general areas of interest, but this is not an exhaustive list, so please get in touch if you think your idea could benefit those living with serious disease.

  • Novel modalities that show, for example, insulin sensitisation, glucose regulation with added benefit on weight or comorbidities, improvement of pancreatic beta cell health
  • Next generation insulin and GLP-1 receptor agonists with added benefit to glucose control, i.e. weight or comorbidities
  • Novel modalities addressing immunotolerance for type 1 diabetes

  • Novel approaches that affect appetite regulation or energy expenditure
  • Novel approaches that show improvement in lean body mass by fat loss
  • Novel approaches that address comorbidities, e.g. diabetes, cardiovascular disease and/or metabolic liver disease pathways, and mechanisms of action that impact breakthrough weight loss (>15%)

  • Non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH): Novel modalities that address fibrosis and inflammation
  • Atherosclerosis: Novel modalities with potential to address residual risk in patients with high cardiovascular risk in addition to cholesterol lowering therapies
  • Chronic heart failure: Novel modalities with potential to add significant benefit beyond standard of care in patients with systolic or diastolic dysfunction
  • Chronic kidney disease: Novel modalities addressing fibrosis or inflammation with potential to deliver efficacy beyond standard of care
  • Disease awareness and health management public-private-partnerships 

Focus across phases (discovery, pre-clinical and early clinical), as well as digital, data, device and diagnosis solutions for the following rare diseases:  

  • Rare blood disorders: Benign blood diseases including hemoglobinopathies, hemolytic anemias and complement biology diseases

  • Rare endocrine disorders:  Rare adrenal, pituitary and growth related diseases, Haemophilia: Novel bypassing agents for prophylaxis, cell and gene-based therapy approaches

  • Cell therapies (stem cell) and differentiation protocols for serious chronic diseases
  • Cell encapsulation technologies

  • Novel technology platforms or approaches for oligonucleotide or RNA-based therapies
  • Peptide and protein technology platforms (expression, purification and modification)

  • Injector devices
  • Formulation and drug delivery technologies with a focus on oral delivery
  • Invasive device technologies for cell therapy
  • Cell-penetrating technologies, including exosomes and others 

Collaborations with partners are essential for the whole healthcare industry to drive change to defeat diabetes and other serious chronic diseases.

At Novo Nordisk, we work with research teams, as well as small and large companies, to co-develop innovative treatments and technologies, benefiting all partners.

We are always interested in contributing to the development and maturation of the latest innovation and research in our areas of interest. To achieve this, we regularly license intellectual property rights to new technologies or assets from leading external partners.

License agreements can be structured in many ways, including research collaborations with option rights for Novo Nordisk upon successful completion. Our objective is to expand our pipeline with new, exciting assets and to support projects with critical technologies.

We constantly seek new partnerships with leading individual experts and research teams within biotechnology, academia and other pharmaceutical companies, to accelerate scientific discovery and innovation in mutual areas of interest.

In order to ensure our medicines benefit as many patients as possible, we consider partnerships in specific countries or regions to enable better patient access to medicines and better local service to healthcare providers.

We will also consider biomarker and diagnostic partnerships supporting development and commercialisation of our medicines. To support the patient user experience, we actively partner around digital health. Find out more here.

We take part in public-private partnerships where they offer an opportunity to help people living with a serious chronic disease and to expand the knowledge base of the wider scientific community. Find out more here.

We also support therapy area development by disease awareness partnerships and partnering with health institutions.

We also consider acquiring small to mid-size biotech companies or their assets when there is a good match in complementary expertise and mutual interest.

Click on the links to read more about the acquisitions of Dicerna Pharmaceuticals, Corvidia Therapeutics, Prothena (subsidiary), and Emisphere Technologies.