Cellular Intelligence has licensed Novo Nordisk’s cell therapy programme for Parkinson’s disease, seven months after the Danish drugmaker wound down operations with the modality.
Cellular Intelligence, which heavily relies on AI to help advance clinical candidates, acquired the global rights to the cell therapy for an undisclosed amount. An upfront payment was not mentioned, though Novo is in line for future milestones and royalties. As part of the deal, Novo will make an equity investment into Cellular Intelligence.
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The US biotech, backed by tech tycoon Mark Zuckerberg, will advance clinical development of the programme, which covers an allogeneic pluripotent stem cell-derived dopaminergic progenitor therapy, currently in a first-in-human Phase I/II clinical trial. Cellular Intelligence revealed the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has also granted fast-track designation as well as investigational new drug (IND) clearance for further clinical development. There is currently no cell therapy approved for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease.
Cellular Intelligence’s AI platform helps predict how cells in different states change in response to external signals. The company combines multiplexing technologies with a foundation model trained on data that spans millions of unique perturbation conditions. The Parkinson’s programme will be advanced with the help of this platform, which is designed to speed up development timelines, reduce costs and reach scalability more easily. Data points generated from the programme will also be fed back into Cellular Intelligence’s platform to aid training.
Cellular Intelligence’s CEO, Micha Breakstone, said: “This cell therapy Parkinson’s programme is truly innovative and exemplifies the powerful convergence of exciting academic discovery with the uncompromising quality of a global pharmaceutical leader, and we are honoured to carry the program into its next chapter. Optimising and scaling complex cell therapy programs to reach patients globally is exactly the challenge our AI-native platform was built to solve.”
For Novo, the deal means the shelved programme now has a clinical life ahead of it. In October 2025, the drugmaker shuttered its cell therapy unit, ending all work with programmes harnessing the modality. As part of the move, all the division’s 250 employees were laid off. Since the strategic pivot, Novo has been finding buyers for the assets. In January 2026, Aspect Biosystems acquired stem cell-derived islet cell and hypo-immune cell engineering technologies from Novo.
Cell & Gene Therapy coverage on Pharmaceutical Technology is supported by Cytiva.
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