(Bloomberg) -- The owner of Europe’s most valuable drugmaker is betting that its latest investment in a company with roots in DNA sequencing will see the technology used to help make cancer vaccines.
Novo Holdings A/S, the biggest shareholder in weight-loss drug maker Novo Nordisk A/S, is investing £50 million ($63.9 million) in Oxford Nanopore Technologies Plc, a pioneer in developing hand-held gene analyzers. The hope for the Danish investor is that expanding from DNA sequencing into mRNA cancer therapies will pay off.
Before the pandemic began, messenger RNA technology was pointed at developing cancer vaccines, drugs that teach the immune system to recognize and attack tumors. Now that the Covid threat has subsided, companies like BioNTech SE and Moderna Inc. are returning to that goal, and Novo Holdings executives think Oxford Nanopore has the technology to help make it happen.
“We think there’s a significant opportunity in there that takes advantage of the unique properties of the technology,” Daniel Mahony, senior partner for growth investments at Novo Holdings, said in an interview. Novo has seen the UK company’s technology get to the point where it could potentially open up new markets for the business, he said.
With the rise in popularity of weight-loss drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy, Novo Holdings’ controlling stake in Novo Nordisk has provided capital to invest in — and even buy — numerous companies. That’s included the purchase of Catalent Inc. to provide much needed obesity drug manufacturing capacity, as well as stakes in biotechs aiming for new cancer treatments.
If the company is successful in differentiating its revenue growth profile, Novo Holdings’ Mahony said, it becomes a better proposition compared to other players in the market.
Attacking Targets
Cancer vaccines are related to immunotherapies like Merck & Co.’s Keytruda that unleash the power of the immune system on tumors. The vaccines use mRNA to program immune proteins and cells to attack specific targets on the surface of tumor cells.
The aim is to use Oxford Nanopore’s technology when manufacturing mRNA vaccines, according to Chief Executive Officer Gordon Sanghera, measuring various attributes related to the RNA molecules at each step of the process. It shortens a process that might take a month to just a couple of days, he said.
Oxford Nanopore has begun partnering with researchers at the University of Queensland to analyze mRNA vaccines and therapies and collaborating with contract drug manufacturer Lonza Group AG. It also aims to apply the technology to cell and gene therapies, as well as wider pharmaceutical manufacturing processes.
If the company is successful in differentiating its revenue growth profile, Novo Holdings’ Mahony said, it becomes a better proposition compared to other players in the market.
Novo Nordisk is scheduled to report quarterly results Wednesday before the market opens.
--With assistance from Lisa Pham.
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