Aspect Biosystems CEO Tamer Mohamed, left, and chief technology officer Simon Beyer in Vancouver in 2021. The Vancouver company’s 3-D live tissue-printing technology will receive new investment from Novo Nordisk.DARRYL DYCK/The Globe and Mail
Vancouver’s Aspect Biosystems Ltd., which is developing technology to 3-D print live tissue implants that can replace organ functions, is deepening a pivotal relationship with pharma giant Novo Nordisk A/S NVO-N to create cellular treatments for type 1 diabetes.
Aspect signed a development deal in 2023 with the Danish company after demonstrating its implants could treat diabetes in rodents. The deal gave Novo an exclusive right to develop as many as four products to treat diabetes and/or obesity with the B.C. company’s technology.
That deal could be worth US$2.6-billion – up to US$650-million per product – in payments to Aspect for achieving development milestones, plus royalties on any Novo product sales that come out of the deal. Novo paid US$75-million up front to fund Aspect’s research and development and for an ownership stake.
UBC spinout Aspect inks deal with Novo Nordisk to develop 3-D printed diabetes-curing implants
Now, under its expanded partnership, Aspect said Tuesday that it had acquired rights to incorporate key biological components from Novo into its novel treatments. Those components include stem-cell derived islet cells, as well as cell-engineering technologies that prevent the human immune system from attacking 3-D-printed tissue when it is implanted into patients.
Islet cells, produced by the pancreas, make insulin that keep blood sugar levels in check. Those cells are destroyed by the immune system in people with type 1 diabetes.
Under the expanded partnership, Aspect will lead development, manufacturing and commercialization of its product, while Novo gets defined but undisclosed rights to expand its role in later-stage development and commercialization.
Novo will also make an additional, undisclosed equity investment in Aspect and pay for research to advance the therapies. Novo will be eligible to receive royalties and milestone payments on future product sales from Aspect.
While few other details were released, the deal advances Aspect’s ability to build a Canadian big pharma company. Aspect and fellow Vancouver biotechnology developer AbCellera Biologics Inc. have stated ambitions to create the first such company based in Canada, which is the only G7 country that doesn’t host a giant, vertically integrated developer and producer of its own innovative medicines.
“This is a cure, and I can’t state that enough because not many in our industry get to say they are working on a potential cure,” said Aspect chief executive and co-founder Tamer Mohamed in an interview. “This would replace the critical function of the pancreas. This will be a cure for diabetes.”
Aspect’s technology has yet to be clinically tested in humans, but if the company succeeds, it would be significant for Canada. While Canadian scientists discovered insulin in 1921, today it is Novo and companies in the U.S. (Eli Lilly & Co.) and France (Sanofi S.A.) that dominate the market for insulin treatments.
Vancouver’s Aspect Biosystems raises $115-million to develop 3-D printed human tissue technology
Novo is also best known as the maker of weight-loss drugs such as Ozempic and Wegovy, which are known medically as semaglutide and were originally created to treat type 2 diabetes in adults.
“I am convinced that Aspect has the expertise and the capabilities to progress these transformative cell therapies around the clinical development and ultimately make a difference for people living with diabetes,” Novo president and CEO Maziar Mike Doustdar said in a video posted on LinkedIn Tuesday. “We are really proud to continue our partnership and support of this mission.”
Aspect’s system, which incorporates artificial intelligence, features its own specialized 3-D printers that produce synthetic tissues composed of living cells derived from stem cells and hydrogel polymers.
The tissues are meant to be implanted in people with impaired organs, such as the pancreas or liver. The tissues can then replace, repair or supplement the functions of those organs within minutes, once the circulatory system fuses into the material.
The 13-year-old University of British Columbia spinout has raised more than US$250-million in venture capital to date from Canadian and international investors including Radical Ventures, Pangaea Ventures, Rhino Ventures, Dimension Management LP, Breakthrough T1D (a U.S. non-profit that funds diabetes research), the B.C. government’s InBC Investment Corp. and Novo.
The company, which has more than 110 employees, also received $72.75-million in 2024 in commitments from the federal and B.C. governments to help fund a $200-million project that includes building its own manufacturing facility capable of producing materials for its clinical trials.