Orbis Medicines Raises €90 Million For Oral Macrocycles, Backed by Novo Holdings and Eli Lilly

Denmark-based Orbis Medicines has raised €90 million ($93.2 million) in a Series A financing round to advance its development of oral macrocycle drugs. The round was co-led by Novo Holdings and New Enterprise Associates (NEA), with participation from Eli Lilly and Company, Cormorant, and the Export and Investment Fund of Denmark, alongside existing investors Novo Holdings and Forbion.

The funding will support Orbis’ pipeline of macrocycle drug candidates, known as nCycles, which are designed to offer oral alternatives to biologic drugs. These oral medicines aim to improve convenience, accessibility, and treatment options for patients, addressing the limitations of injectable biologics.

Orbis Medicines initially emerged from stealth in February 2024 with €26 million in seed funding. Novo Holdings, Novo Nordisk’s parent company, led the seed round. With the latest Series A funding, the company has raised €116 million to date. Eli Lilly has joined Novo Holdings as a major backer in this financing. Both Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly have stakes in GLP-1 drugs, which are currently administered via injection, and are exploring oral alternatives for weight-loss and other therapeutic areas.

Orbis’ platform, nGen, integrates automated chemical synthesis, high-throughput screening, and machine learning to optimize macrocycle design. Macrocycles, defined by their cyclic structures, are a versatile class of compounds that can target a wide range of protein targets. While having strong therapeutic potential, marcocycles have historically faced challenges with oral bioavailability and membrane permeability. The nGen platform tries to address these issues with nCycles, macrocycle candidates designed for oral administration.

Research published in Nature Chemical Biology showed the platform's capabilities in generating cyclic peptides with nanomolar affinities, high stabilities, and oral bioavailability rates as high as 18% in preclinical studies.

See also: The Rise of Cyclic Peptides: Bridging the Gap in Modern Medicine

Orbis was founded in 2021 by Novo Holdings’ Seed Investments team, based on research from Christian Heinis and Sevan Habeshian at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL). Habeshian, who co-founded Orbis, also serves as Chief Technology Officer. The company recently expanded its operations by joining Symbion’s biotech startup hub in Fuglebakken, Copenhagen, which will house its research and development operations and executive team.

As part of this financing, Morten Graugaard Døssing, previously Executive Chair of Orbis’ Board of Directors, has been appointed CEO. The funds will be used to advance Orbis’ pipeline of nCycle candidates, which initially focuses on pathways validated by existing biologic drugs, offering oral alternatives with the potential to treat a larger patient population.

Topics: Startups & Deals