A rooftop deck at Variant Bio’s Seattle offices have a view of the city’s landmark Space Needle. (Cory Parris Photo)Variant Bio today announced a partnership with Novo Nordisk for disease research and development that could total $50 million for the biotech startup.The Seattle company is working with genetically diverse populations around the world in the pursuit of new drug therapies. The company has built a platform that uses statistical genetics and machine learning to identify the most promising treatments.The multi-year collaboration with Novo Nordisk is focused on using genomic information in treating metabolic diseases such as obesity and diabetes.Most research on the role of genetics in disease has focused on people with European ancestry, said David Moller, Variant’s chief scientist. Variant is partnering with Indigenous peoples worldwide to build more representative data sets. “We hope that a deeper understanding of the relationships between genetic variation and metabolic traits will yield novel targets and ultimately lead to better and more diverse treatment options for people around the globe,” Moller said in a statement. Variant launched in 2018 and has raised $130 million from investors

Collaboration leverages Variant Bio's innovative VB-Inference Platform and expertise partnering with global populations. Commercial terms include an upfront payment and additional near-term RD funding totaling up to $50 million, plus potential option and milestone payments. SEATTLE, Jan. 7, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Variant Bio, a genomics-driven drug discovery company, today announced a multi-year research collaboration with Novo Nordisk to discover novel targets for the treatment of metabolic disease.The partnership between Novo Nordisk and Variant Bio is aimed at identifying and validating multiple novel targets with sufficient human genetic evidence to initiate human-centric drug discovery programs

Evotec and Variant Bio partner to develop fibrosis treatments.