On October 13, 2026 Generate Biomedicines Inc. (NASDAQ:GENB) ("Generate") reported a multi-target strategic collaboration with Zealand Pharma A/S (NASDAQ:ZEAL), a biotechnology company transforming the future of metabolic health. Under the collaboration, the companies intend to design and develop multispecific protein therapeutics for obesity and other metabolic diseases using The Generate Platform, which integrates generative AI with high-throughput experimental validation.
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The collaboration is intended to accelerate the design and development of protein therapeutics for obesity and metabolic disease by combining Zealand Pharma’s expertise in metabolic health with Generate’s ability to engineer proteins with AI and refine those designs using experimental data toward the desired biological function.
"We are thrilled to collaborate with Generate, a leader in AI and structure-enabled drug generation. 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," said Utpal Singh, chief scientific officer at Zealand Pharma. "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."
"We are excited to bring together Zealand Pharma’s deep expertise in peptide therapeutics and metabolic disease with Generate’s cutting-edge computational platform and experimental capabilities to address the continued unmet medical needs of patients with cardiometabolic disease," said Mike Nally, chief executive officer of Generate. "Together, our teams will first define what a great medicine for patients looks like for each of the two initial programs, and then leverage The Generate Platform to design multispecific candidates that meet or exceed that profile."
About the Collaboration
Under the terms of the agreement, Generate will use its proprietary generative AI platform to lead research through lead-candidate selection. Zealand Pharma will assume responsibility for subsequent clinical development, regulatory submissions, and worldwide commercialization.
For the two initial programs, Generate will receive $30 million upfront and up to $35 million in early preclinical milestones, and is eligible for total milestones of nearly $1.2 billion, including potential development, regulatory, and commercial milestones, plus tiered royalties on future worldwide net sales of any commercialized products resulting from the collaboration.
Ropes & Gray LLP acted as legal advisor to Generate, and Cooley LLP acted as legal advisor to Zealand Pharma.
(Press release, Generate Biomedicines, OCT 13, 2026, View Source;docid=7c037a5bbc2a99ff3971c534ee33d89ad1b256d1&content=prnews&format=html [SID1234673360])