Swedish drug delivery company Nanexa has entered a global exclusive licensing and collaboration agreement with Novo Nordisk covering its PharmaShell atomic layer deposition (ALD) technology for long-acting injectable medicines.
The agreement covers up to five development programmes targeting obesity, type 2 diabetes and other cardiometabolic diseases, with monthly and quarterly dosing profiles among the targeted administration frequencies.
Novo will lead global development and commercialisation.
Nanexa is eligible to receive up to €1.165bn under the agreement, comprising €615m in upfront and development and regulatory milestone payments, with further sales-based milestones.
The company will also receive low single-digit royalties on future net sales of products developed under the collaboration.
How does PharmaShell work?
PharmaShell uses ALD to apply an ultra-thin inorganic coating to individual drug particles.
According to Nanexa, the approach is designed to provide controlled and sustained release of APIs and can enable high drug loading in injectable formulations.
The Novo agreement follows a period of development activity around PharmaShell in the metabolic disease sector.
In March, Nanexa reported preclinical data indicating that its PharmaShell platform could support quarterly dosing of semaglutide, following earlier data supporting a monthly dosing profile.
Nanexa also signed a licence and option agreement with Moderna in December 2025 covering up to five compounds.
That deal included an initial $3m payment, potential milestone payments of up to $500m and tiered single-digit royalties on product sales.
The company currently has three internally developed projects listed in its pipeline, including NEX-22, a sustained-release formulation of liraglutide targeting a one-month release profile, alongside programmes based on azacitidine and lenalidomide.
The Novo collaboration comes as the pharma company continues to expand its cardiometabolic pipeline.
Novo recently reported Phase III data for its investigational once-weekly CagriSema combination in obesity and type 2 diabetes and is also advancing next-generation amylin and other cardiometabolic programmes.
For Nanexa, the agreement gives PharmaShell a route to evaluate the asset across multiple peptide-based medicines while allowing Novo to lead subsequent development and commercialisation.
“We are very excited about and proud of this license agreement with Novo and look forward to working with them to successfully develop products with less frequent dosing in obesity and type 2 diabetes indications," said David Westberg, CEO of Nanexa.
This agreement further strengthens the external validation of PharmaShell as a broadly applicable drug delivery platform and ... provides a strong foundation for expanding PharmaShell into additional therapeutic areas.
What are the implications for drug manufacturing?
The collaboration highlights the pharma industry's move towards longer-acting GLP-1 and peptide medicines, with monthly or quarterly dosing potentially offering an alternative to weekly injections.
For CDMOs, drug product manufacturers and formulation specialists, this could increase demand for expertise in long-acting injectable formulations, including drug loading, release kinetics, stability and scalable manufacturing.
The deal also demonstrates the potential value of drug-delivery technologies in differentiating peptide medicines as competition in the cardiometabolic market intensifies.
