Cellular Intelligence has acquired Novo Nordisk’s clinical-stage Parkinson’s cell therapy programme, combining AI-native manufacturing capabilities with regenerative medicine expertise to accelerate development, scalability, and global commercialisation efforts.

Cellular Intelligence has entered into an agreement with Novo Nordisk to acquire global rights to the pharmaceutical giant’s clinical-stage cell therapy programme for Parkinson’s disease.

The agreement marks a significant milestone for Cellular Intelligence as it looks to apply its proprietary AI-native platform to accelerate clinical development, manufacturing, and the path towards commercialisation for the programme, which is currently in a first-in-human Phase 1/2 clinical trial.

Importantly, the therapy has already received FDA Fast Track Designation and IND clearance for further clinical development, underscoring its potential as a meaningful disease-modifying treatment for people living with Parkinson’s disease.

As part of the arrangement, Novo Nordisk will also make an equity investment into Cellular Intelligence and remain eligible for future milestones and royalties.

“This cell therapy Parkinson’s programme is truly innovative and exemplifies the powerful convergence of exciting academic discovery with the uncompromising quality of a global pharmaceutical leader, and we are honoured to carry the programme into its next chapter. Optimising and scaling complex cell therapy programmes to reach patients globally is exactly the challenge our AI-native platform was built to solve”

Micha Breakstone, Ph.D., co-Founder and CEO of Cellular Intelligence

At the centre of the collaboration is Cellular Intelligence’s AI-native platform, which combines proprietary multiplexing technologies with a foundation model trained on data spanning millions of unique perturbation conditions.

The company believes this approach can significantly compress traditional cell therapy development and manufacturing timelines whilst reducing costs and improving scalability – key barriers that have historically limited wider commercial adoption within regenerative medicine.

The Parkinson’s programme itself focuses on an allogeneic pluripotent stem cell-derived dopaminergic progenitor therapy, designed to address the growing global burden of neurodegenerative disease.

Beyond the immediate programme, Cellular Intelligence also expects the clinical and manufacturing data generated through development to further strengthen its foundation model, potentially enabling wider applications across cell therapy and regenerative medicine in the future.

“Finding the right steward for the programme was critical, and we are convinced that Cellular Intelligence has the capabilities needed to advance it further. The convergence of developmental biology and genomics, and the possibility of combining this with AI on a single platform, provide an exciting opportunity in medicine in general, and for the cell therapy field in particular”

Jacob Petersen, Senior Vice President, Global Research, Novo Nordisk

To support the programme’s continued advancement, Cellular Intelligence has appointed Nuno Mendonça, M.D., as Chief Medical Officer.

A board-certified neurologist, Dr. Mendonça brings extensive experience from senior clinical development roles at Bial, AbbVie, and Novartis Gene Therapies, spanning both early- and late-stage neuroscience and rare disease programmes across North America and Europe.

The appointment reflects Cellular Intelligence’s ambitions to rapidly scale the programme’s clinical progression whilst leveraging its AI capabilities to streamline manufacturing and operational efficiency.

Operating under the legal entity Somite Therapeutics, Cellular Intelligence describes itself as an AI-native TechBio focused on building a universal foundation model of cell signalling to better understand, predict, and ultimately control cellular behaviour.

Headquartered in Boston, the company has raised more than USD$60 million to date from investors including Khosla Ventures, CZI, SciFi VC, and AMD Ventures, as it continues expanding its clinical-stage regenerative medicine platform.