Zealand Pharma and AI-centric biotech Generate Biomedicines have teamed up to develop protein-based therapeutics for obesity and other metabolic diseases in a deal rising to $1.2bn.
Zealand, which already heavily focuses on obesity and metabolic health, will pay $30m upfront to Generate for two initial programmes. Additional payments include preclinical milestones of $35m, with a total milestone amount of nearly $1.2bn. Generate is also in line for royalties on the two programmes, with an option to add a third.
The companies did not disclose the precise chemical targets of the partnership within the obesity and metabolic space. The therapies will however be “multispecific proteins”, bolstering Zealand’s portfolio that already includes small molecules and peptides.
To find the new candidates, Generate will utilise its generative AI (GenAI) platform to lead research. The biotech says that its study of millions of proteins allows it to generate novel medicines with specific therapeutic functions. Zealand Pharma will assume responsibility for subsequent clinical development, regulatory submissions, and worldwide commercialisation.
Zealand’s chief scientific officer, Uptal Singh, said: “This collaboration expands our toolbox to include proteins, complementing our existing small-molecule and peptide capabilities and opening new approaches for polypharmacology for innovative therapeutics. This collaboration reflects our strategy of expanding our platform and integrating our metabolic expertise in Copenhagen with the multi-modality expertise in Cambridge to develop next-generation therapeutics for metabolic health.”
Generate was founded in 2018 by Noubar Afeyan, Molly Gibson, and Gevorg Grigoryan. Afeyan is best known for co-founding Moderna and still serves on the vaccine specialist’s board. The biotech went public via a $400m initial public offering (IPO) in February 2026, marking the joint third-largest biotech listings so far this year.
Generate’s pipeline already includes two oncology assets and one immunology drug. The latter, GB-0895, is most advanced in severe asthma in a Phase III trial. Other programmes are in Phase I studies.
Before signing the deal with Zealand, Generate’s technology had already attracted the interest of big pharma in recent years. In 2022, Amgen started working with Generate to develop five initial programmes, with the potential for five more at a later stage, in a deal worth up to $1.9bn. Novartis then came on board too in 2024, inking a separate deal worth more than $1bn to develop protein therapeutics.
