Danish pharmaceutical company Novo has signed a global licensing agreement worth up to €1.165 billion (DKK 8.7 billion) with Swedish biotech company Nanexa, gaining access to technology designed to make injections for obesity, type 2 diabetes and other cardiometabolic diseases last significantly longer.
Under the agreement announced by Nanexa, Novo receives an exclusive global licence to use the Swedish company’s PharmaShell technology for certain peptide-based medicines across as many as five development programmes.
The aim is to develop formulations that could be administered once a month or once every three months, instead of requiring more frequent injections.
How the Swedish technology works
Nanexa, based in Uppsala, has developed a drug-delivery platform that uses atomic layer deposition to place an extremely thin inorganic coating around individual drug particles.
The coating controls how quickly the active substance is released into the body. This could allow medicines that currently require frequent administration to remain active for substantially longer periods.
Novo will be responsible for the global development and commercialisation of products developed under the partnership.
The agreement covers potential treatments for obesity, type 2 diabetes and other cardiometabolic diseases, although the companies have not disclosed which specific medicines will be included in the five programmes.
The Novo-Nanexa deal could reach €1.165 billion
The financial structure is partly dependent on whether the development programmes succeed.
Nanexa can receive up to €615 million through a combination of an upfront payment and development and regulatory milestone payments. The companies have not disclosed how much of that amount will be paid immediately.
Further sales-related milestones could bring the overall value of the agreement to €1.165 billion, while Nanexa would also receive royalties in the low single-digit percentage range on global net sales of any products eventually developed.
The deal immediately had a major impact on the Swedish company. Reuters reported that Nanexa shares more than doubled in early trading in Stockholm on 25 September, reaching their highest level in more than five years.
Longer-lasting injections are becoming increasingly important
The agreement comes as pharmaceutical companies compete to develop more convenient obesity and diabetes treatments, including oral medicines and injections requiring less frequent dosing.
Novo is already developing several next-generation treatments in the field. At its Capital Markets Day on 21 September, the company said it wants to expand and diversify its pipeline through 2030, including several late-stage programmes for obesity and diabetes.
Nanexa had previously tested PharmaShell with Novo and said in its 2025 annual report that feasibility studies had examined whether the technology could enable monthly dosing for one of the Danish company’s existing products.
The new agreement turns that earlier work into a much broader partnership, potentially extending the technology across several medicines and towards both monthly and quarterly injections.
