Ascendis Pharma (ASND) said Monday it granted Novo Nordisk (NVO) an exclusive global license to develop and commercialize TransCon technology-based products in metabolic diseases and a product-by-product exclusive license in cardiovascular diseases.

Under the terms of the deal, Novo Nordisk will also receive exclusive rights to expand any resulting metabolic disease products into other therapeutic areas.

The lead program in the partnership will be a once-monthly GLP-1 receptor agonist product candidate that will initially target obesity and type-2 diabetes, Ascendis said. In exchange for the license, the company will be eligible to receive total payments of up to $285 million for the lead program. It will also be eligible to receive sales-based milestone payments and tiered royalties on global net sales.

For each additional metabolic or cardiovascular disease product candidate, the company will be eligible to receive up to $77.5 million in development and regulatory milestone payments, plus sales-based milestone payments and tiered royalties on global net sales.

The companies expect to close the transaction before the end of 2024, Ascendis said.

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