Novo Nordisk A/S agreed to hand over an experimental therapy for Parkinson’s disease to a Mark Zuckerberg-backed AI startup to potentially speed its development.
The startup, Cellular Intelligence, is gaining rights to the early-stage treatment and will be in charge of shepherding it through clinical trials, it said Monday. Novo, the maker of the obesity blockbuster Wegovy, stands to receive milestone payments and royalties if the program succeeds. The Danish drugmaker agreed to buy a stake in the Boston-based startup as part of the deal. No financial details were disclosed.
Cellular bid on the Parkinson’s effort after Novo last year announced it would cut its cell-therapy division to focus on lucrative areas like obesity and diabetes. The startup has opened a lab in Copenhagen and has hired many former Novo employees who previously worked on the project, according to Chief Executive Officer Micha Breakstone.
Cellular Intelligence will use its AI platform to accelerate clinical development and manufacturing, Breakstone said in an interview. The transaction marks a reversal of roles to traditional pharma deals, in which big firms typically take over products from smaller biotechs.
Cell therapies involve live cellular material that gets injected or transplanted into patients, and such treatments are approved for several types of cancer. The experimental Parkinson’s program transplants lab-grown, dopamine-producing nerve cells into the area of the brain affected by the disease using a specific device. Dopamine plays a key role in various functions including movement and mood regulation. There are no results available yet for the early clinical trial.
Cellular Intelligence plans a mid-stage study that would begin early next year. The AI will help optimize how the cells are produced, predicting how small changes affect quality and survival, Breakstone said. The data from the clinical trials will also help further refine the company’s AI models.
Novo’s commitment is a “small strategic investment” in cash, said Breakstone, a technology entrepreneur who has built and sold several AI companies before founding Cellular in 2023. The Danish company declined to elaborate.
Earlier this year, Novo struck a similar deal with Canada-based Aspect Biosystems, which acquired rights to stem cell-derived islet cell and hypoimmune cell engineering technologies.
Cellular Intelligence has so far raised more than $60 million from investors including Khosla Ventures and the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, the philanthropic organization founded by Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg.