EraCal Therapeutics conducting joint research with Novo Nordisk

EraCal Therapeutics from Schlieren in the canton of Zurich and Novo Nordisk, located on the outskirts of the Danish capital of Copenhagen, will in future jointly research the potential of drugs to combat obesity. According to a press release, the partnership will aim to discover novel target molecules of relevance to food intake regulation and additional metabolic phenotypes. As part of the joint research plan, EraCal and Novo Nordisk will evaluate novel molecules in terms of their potential as an anti-obesity treatment. For this purpose, a method developed by EraCal centered on the use of zebrafish larvae will be deployed. Novo Nordisk specializes in the development of drugs to treat metabolic diseases ranging from diabetes to (morbid) obesity and employs more than 45,000 staff members.

The Danish firm boasts extensive expertise in the area of peptide therapeutics, that is to say the use of endogenous active ingredients, as Josua Jordi, CEO of EraCal, explains in the press release: “Combining EraCal’s phenotypic screening platform with Novo Nordisk's expertise within pharmaceutical peptides and metabolic diseases will contribute to the discovery of novel drug candidates for the treatment of obesity”.

Dr. Kirsten Raun, Scientific Vice President and Head of Global Obesity and LD Research at Novo Nordisk believes that the zebrafish platform developed by EraCal “offers a unique opportunity for unbiased, high-throughput phenotypic screening” of human-relevant peptide and small molecule libraries stemming from research conducted by Novo Nordisk aimed at discovering drugs to help combat obesity.

Based in Schlieren in the canton of Zurich, EraCal Therapeutics is a spin-off from the University of Zurich (UZH) and Harvard University in the USA.