Patch Biosciences, Inc.

Novo Nordisk has expanded its partnership with synthetic biology service provider Ginkgo Bioworks to improve production of its medicines for serious chronic diseases, including diabetes and obesity. The initial plan for the framework agreement spans five years.Under the "flexible" partnership announced Wednesday, Ginkgo said the companies plan to collaborate on several early pipeline projects and on engineering scalable manufacturing solutions across the Danish drugmaker's portfolio.The companies first teamed up in 2022 to create new expression hosts for pharmaceutical products. The project moved into the development phase last year.Marcus Schindler, Novo's chief scientific officer, said, "We look forward to leveraging Ginkgo's synthetic biology platform across our R&D pipeline, from discovery through new ways of manufacturing, in this broader strategic partnership."The expanded deal comes as Novo tries to satisfy surging demand for its GLP-1 products Wegovy (semaglutide) and Ozempic (semaglutide), which are approved to treat obesity and diabetes, respectively. In February, it paid $11 billion upfront to buy three of Catalent's fill-finish sites from its parent organisation, Novo Holdings, which itself spent $16.5 billion to acquire the  CDMO. For more, see No 'easy way forward' as Novo-Catalent deal could exacerbate Lilly’s manufacturing woes.Meanwhile, Ginkgo has been busy topping up its collection of cell-and-gene tools, its most recent acquisition being Modulus Therapeutics' library of switch receptors and CARs. Earlier this year, it also gained access to ProteoNic's vector production platform; an in silico suite for construct characterisation, simulation, and design optimisation by Form Bio; and Patch Biosciences' AI toolkit for DNA sequence design.

Modulus Therapeutics will slide in behind a suite of companies or assets brought in by Ginkgo Bioworks' business development team in recent months. Ginkgo Bioworks’ swift moving business development team is slowing down long enough to load up some new chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) assets from Modulus Therapeutics. The deal will see Ginkgo pick up a handful of cell therapy platform assets including CAR and switch receptor libraries. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Modulus has been quietly working on cell therapies, launching with a $3.5 million seed round in July 2021 to work on cancer. The company now focuses on autoimmune disorders, following a shift that’s been seen across the cell therapy space in the past year. But what has attracted Ginkgo is Modulus’ libraries, made up of novel NK-specific and T-cell specific CAR and switch receptor designs that enable improved control and performance of immune-cell-based therapies. The company says the database can improve on the safety and efficacy of cell therapies by providing more precise control over activation and targeting. "Modulus Therapeutics has built an array of incredible cell therapy assets that we are excited to add into the significant cell therapy capabilities Ginkgo has developed to date," said Ginkgo CEO Jason Kelly. "Modulus’ CAR and switch receptor designs and libraries seamlessly integrate into our existing infrastructure and offerings. We are excited to put these new assets to work for our customers and contribute to the transformative advancements in CAR and cell therapies." Ginkgo already has a catalog of cell therapy assets customers can use to boost the performance of T-cell- and NK-cell-based CAR therapies in solid tumors, autoimmune and other diseases. Modulus will slide in behind a suite of companies or assets brought in by Ginkgo’s business development team in recent months. On Feb. 28, the company announced a trio of acquisitions with Patch Biosciences, Reverie Labs and Proof Diagnostics. In April 2023, StrideBio was snapped up for $28.5 million for its adeno-associated virus capsid discovery and engineering platform. Looking back even further, Ginkgo has always used acquisitions to fill out its offerings. The largest deal to date is the $486.9 million buyout of synthetic biology company Zymergen that was announced in July 2022. https://public.flourish.studio/visualisation/17380453/

Ginkgo Bioworks has been on a cell-and-gene tool collecting spree this year, and its latest acquisition is Modulus Therapeutics’ library of switch receptors and CARs.The suite of cell therapy components includes NK- and T-cell specific CAR and switch receptors, which are intended to improve the safety and efficacy of cell therapies by allowing for more precise control over activation and targeting. The custom CARs are designed to enhance a cell therapy’s proliferation and cytotoxicity to generate a more robust and durable response against target cells.The switch receptors use specific ligands to enable CAR-T or CAR-NK cell therapies to respond to environmental signals, including inhibitory ones.Modulus’ tech will be integrated into Ginkgo's cell therapy service platform, which allows partners to sample CAR domains with various functional roles and structural positions, sourced from diverse immune cell types. One such partner is Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, who linked up with Ginkgo last year to discover next-generation GD2 CAR-T cell therapies with improved persistence, proliferation, fitness to treat solid tumours.Tuesday’s deal with Modulus follows a series of collaborations to bulk out the synthetic biology company’s genetic medicines offerings. Earlier this year, Ginkgo gained several key technologies, including ProteoNic’s vector production platform; Form Bio’s in silico suite for construct characterisation, simulation, and design optimization; and Patch Biosciences’s AI toolkit for DNA sequence design for more effective, specific, and durable genetic medicines.