Zealand Pharma and Generate Biomedicines have entered a collaboration potentially worth nearly $1.2 billion to develop protein-based treatments for obesity and other metabolic diseases using generative artificial intelligence.
Generate will receive $30 million upfront and can earn as much as $35 million in early preclinical milestone payments.
Development, regulatory and commercial milestones across the two initial programs could eventually bring total payments to approximately $1.2 billion, in addition to tiered royalties on future sales.
The agreement also provides an option to establish a third development program.
Generate will use its artificial-intelligence platform to design multispecific proteins and conduct research through candidate selection.
Zealand will then assume responsibility for clinical development, regulatory submissions and worldwide commercialization.
The partnership brings together two major investment themes in biotechnology: the rapidly expanding obesity-treatment market and attempts to use artificial intelligence to accelerate drug discovery.
For Zealand, the agreement broadens its research capabilities beyond its traditional emphasis on peptide medicines.
For Generate, it provides entry into one of the pharmaceutical industry’s most competitive therapeutic markets.
The headline $1.2 billion value does not represent guaranteed consideration.
Most of the potential payments depend on future development, regulatory and commercial milestones, and no resulting drug has yet demonstrated safety or effectiveness in clinical trials.
The next milestones will be selection of development candidates, progression toward human clinical studies and evidence that AI-designed multispecific proteins can produce meaningful therapeutic advantages in metabolic disease.
