Vivani, Novo Nordisk Ink Deal to Evaluate Long-Acting GLP-1 Implant

Vivani Medical has signed a new deal with Novo Nordisk, enabling the latter to evaluate NPM-139, the former’s semaglutide drug implant.

NPM-139 leverages Vivani’s NanoPortal platform, which is under development for chronic weight management. The company said there aren’t any provisions for NPM-139 or its proprietary NanoPortal technology related to this agreement.

Vivani also said it separately plans to begin a Phase 1, randomized, first-in-human study later this year in order to evaluate the NPM-139 implant with Wegovy injections as an active comparator. The study aims to characterize NPM-139’s safety, pharmacokinetics, and tolerability to support in order to begin a Phase 2 dose-ranging study.

“The new agreement announced today supporting our semaglutide implant program in chronic weight management demonstrates Novo Nordisk’s interest in evaluating our technology and its lead semaglutide application,” said Vivani’s president and CEO Adam Mendelsohn, Ph.D. “This agreement reinforces our confidence regarding the market opportunity for our GLP-1 implants under development. We believe that our NanoPortal implants under development, including NPM-139, could address a growing segment of patients who would prefer a convenient once- or twice-yearly treatment option and the peace of mind that treatment could be stopped at any time if that became necessary.”

The company is building a portfolio of GLP-1 based implants for metabolic diseases like obesity and type 2 diabetes. NanoPortal implants hope to help patients avoid the many challenges related to daily or weekly oral/injectable administration.