GB-0895

Taylor Tieden for BioSpace Obesity-focused Zealand Pharma is buying into Generate:Biomedicines’s generative AI platform to create new multispecific drug candidates. Zealand Pharma is enlisting Generate:Biomedicines and its AI-driven drug design platform to develop treatments for weight loss and metabolic conditions in a deal that could reach up to $1.2 billion. The agreement, announced Tuesday , includes a $30 million upfront payment from Zealand, plus up to $35 million in early preclinical milestones. Generate could collect almost $1.2 billion in total development, regulatory and commercial milestones, plus tiered royalties on sales of any alliance asset that reaches the market. For its investment, Danish biopharma Zealand gains access to Generate’s generative AI platform to design new protein therapeutics for obesity and other metabolic diseases. Generate will be responsible for all research activities through candidate selection, while Zealand will take charge of clinical development, as well as regulatory and commercialization activities. With one of the most mature pipelines among its peers, Generate is at the leading edge of a growing class of drugmakers using generative AI to design drugs. Founded in 2018 by Flagship Pioneering, the biotech’s approach “infers generalizable principles of biology” to design potentially therapeutic molecules targeting some of the most difficult-to-crack conditions, according to the company’s website . Massachusetts-based Generate went public in February with $425 million—money meant to support the Phase 3 development of its anti-TSLP therapy GB-0895 for severe asthma. GB-0895, which is also in early-stage studies for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), was designed using the company’s generative AI platform. Phase 1 data disclosed last month showed that a single subcutaneous injection of GB-0895 led to “rapid and sustained reductions” in asthma biomarkers through six months of follow-up. The anti-TSLP antibody likewise lowered disease biomarkers in COPD. Tolerability, the study’s primary outcome , was also favorable, with treatment-emergent adverse events balanced between GB-0895 and placebo groups. Generate’s pipeline also includes two cancer candidates: the MMAE-targeting antibody GB-4362 and the armored CAR T therapy GB-5267. Both are in early-stage development. Generate also has platform collaborations with Novartis and Amgen, through which the AI drugmaker will design novel therapies for a host of confidential programs. IPO Generate Arrives on Nasdaq Ready To Finally Show the World AI-Powered Medicines Generate:Biomedicines has hit the public markets as the world begins to question the usefulness of AI technology. CEO Mike Nally says biology is the key to unlocking the technology’s full potential. March 2, 2026 · 3 min read · Annalee Armstrong Read more For Zealand, the Generate agreement comes after an underwhelming readout last week for the long-acting amylin analog petrelintide. In the Phase 2 ZUPREME-2 study, which assessed weight loss at 28 weeks, patients on petrelintide saw up to a 9.2% mean weight loss versus 2% for placebo comparators. A total of 220 patients with obesity or overweight who also had type 2 diabetes were enrolled in the study. While ZUPREME-2 hit its main goal, analysts at William Blair said they were “disappointed” that petrelintide did not elicit greater weight loss. Also leaving analysts wanting was the reduction in A1c, a measure of average blood sugar levels—the drug reduced A1c by up to 0.65% versus a 0.23% increase in placebo. William Blair at the time pointed to A1c reductions seen with rival therapies such as Eli Lilly’s Zepbound and Novo’s Wegovy ranging from 1.3% to 2.1%. Petrelintide is being developed in collaboration with Roche, which in March 2025 paid $1.65 billion upfront to license the asset and study it with the pharma’s own obesity candidate CT-388. The partners in September launched the Phase 3 ZUPREME program for petrelintide, aiming to enroll around 7,000 patients total. Earlier this month, Zealand reported another obesity disappointment, this time for the Boehringer Ingelheim–partnered survodutide. The companies touted up to 13.1% weight loss at 76 weeks in patients taking the glucagon/GLP-1 receptor dual agonist—findings that investors found underwhelming, sending Zealand’s shares down 8% in the aftermath. Boehringer licensed survodutide from Zealand in 2011. Weight loss Despite Zealand asset’s ‘intriguing’ weight loss, analysts underwhelmed by blood sugar numbers For the second time in a week, Zealand Pharma’s weight loss pipeline has delivered mixed results, this time in a Phase 2 trial for the Roche-partnered asset petrelintide. October 8, 2026 · 4 min read · Annalee Armstrong Read more

To find the new candidates, Generate will utilise its generative AI (GenAI) platform to lead research. Credit: CoreDESIGN/Shutterstock.com. Zealand Pharma and AI-centric biotech Generate Biomedicines have teamed up to develop protein-based therapeutics for obesity and other metabolic diseases in a deal rising to $1.2bn. Zealand, which already heavily focuses on obesity and metabolic health, will pay $30m upfront to Generate for two initial programmes. Additional payments include preclinical milestones of $35m, with a total milestone amount of nearly $1.2bn. Generate is also in line for royalties on the two programmes, with an option to add a third. The companies did not disclose the precise chemical targets of the partnership within the obesity and metabolic space. The therapies will however be “multispecific proteins”, bolstering Zealand’s portfolio that already includes small molecules and peptides. To find the new candidates, Generate will utilise its generative AI (GenAI) platform to lead research. The biotech says that its study of millions of proteins allows it to generate novel medicines with specific therapeutic functions.  Zealand Pharma will assume responsibility for subsequent clinical development, regulatory submissions, and worldwide commercialisation. Zealand’s chief scientific officer, Uptal Singh, said: “This collaboration expands our toolbox to include proteins, complementing our existing small-molecule and peptide capabilities and opening new approaches for polypharmacology for innovative therapeutics. This collaboration reflects our strategy of expanding our platform and integrating our metabolic expertise in Copenhagen with the multi-modality expertise in Cambridge to develop next-generation therapeutics for metabolic health.” Generate was founded in 2018 by Noubar Afeyan, Molly Gibson, and Gevorg Grigoryan. Afeyan is best known for co-founding Moderna and still serves on the vaccine specialist’s board. The biotech went public via a $400m initial public offering (IPO) in February 2026, marking the joint third-largest biotech listings so far this year. Generate’s pipeline already includes two oncology assets and one immunology drug. The latter, GB-0895, is most advanced in severe asthma in a Phase III trial. Other programmes are in Phase I studies. Before signing the deal with Zealand, Generate’s technology had already attracted the interest of big pharma in recent years. In 2022, Amgen started working with Generate to develop five initial programmes, with the potential for five more at a later stage, in a deal worth up to $1.9bn. Novartis then came on board too in 2024, inking a separate deal worth more than $1bn to develop protein therapeutics.