Novo Nordisk Bets €1.165 Billion on Atomic-Layer Deposition to Convert Semaglutide Into a Once-Quarterly Injectable

Key takeaways

• On 24 September 2026, Uppsala-based Nanexa announced a global exclusive licence and collaboration with Novo Nordisk covering its PharmaShell atomic-layer deposition (ALD) platform for peptide drugs in obesity, type 2 diabetes and other cardiometabolic diseases.
• Nanexa is eligible to receive up to €1.165 billion, comprising €615 million in upfront and development and regulatory milestone payments, plus additional sales-based milestones and low single-digit royalties on net sales.
• The collaboration covers up to five development programmes; target administration profiles are once-monthly and once-quarterly.
• The deal was preceded by two waves of preclinical semaglutide data — monthly-dosing pharmacokinetics published in January 2026 and quarterly-dosing feasibility data reported in March 2026 — as well as internal Novo feasibility work that Nanexa says met its target profile.
• Novo will lead global development and commercialisation.

What Nanexa and PharmaShell are

Nanexa is a Swedish pharmaceutical company headquartered in Uppsala that has been developing long-acting injectable formulations using atomic-layer deposition, a coating technique derived from the semiconductor industry. The company develops long-acting injectable drugs using atomic-layer deposition, a technique originally derived from the semiconductor industry.

PharmaShell uses ALD to apply an ultra-thin inorganic coating to individual drug particles, and according to Nanexa the approach is designed to provide controlled and sustained release of APIs, and can enable high drug loading in injectable formulations.

PharmaShell encases active pharmaceutical ingredients at the atomic level in a highly protective, extremely thin film coating of approximately 30 nanometres of slow-dissolving non-toxic inorganic oxides. The platform provides exceptional control of release rate, enabling long, smooth pharmacokinetic profiles with a very low ratio between maximum and minimum plasma concentration.

The practical ambition is straightforward: to transform peptide drugs that currently require weekly subcutaneous injections — as with semaglutide and related GLP-1 agonists — into once-monthly or once-quarterly depot formulations, with the expectation that flatter concentration curves may also reduce the gastrointestinal side effects associated with peak-heavy GLP-1 dosing.

The preclinical evidence that preceded the deal

The Novo Nordisk agreement was not concluded without supporting data. Nanexa published two sets of preclinical results in the first quarter of 2026. In January 2026, Nanexa announced preclinical data demonstrating an exceptional pharmacokinetic profile for a monthly semaglutide formulation, and in March the company showed results for a three-month formulation of semaglutide.

Using data from preclinical studies, Nanexa simulated human plasma profiles for monthly semaglutide dosing. The results showed a peak-to-trough ratio of roughly 1.2 for steady-state monthly dosing and 1.5 for three-monthly dosing, depending on dose level.

A key hallmark of the new formulation is its low initial peak — a feature considered critical in reducing gastrointestinal adverse events commonly associated with GLP-1 therapies. By avoiding the sharp plasma concentration spikes often linked to nausea and other GI symptoms, Nanexa's formulation may offer a more tolerable initiation and maintenance profile.

The advancement of the semaglutide programme built directly on clinical Phase 1 data from Nanexa's liraglutide programme, which provided key insights into PharmaShell performance in humans. Those human PK data from liraglutide represent the closest clinical proof-of-concept for the platform.

Novo had also evaluated PharmaShell internally before the September agreement. Novo had already evaluated PharmaShell on one of its existing products, and Nanexa reported in its 2025 annual report that the feasibility work met its target profile.

In addition, one significant formulation advance in 2026 has been the development of a ready-to-use suspension formulation of PharmaShell-coated semaglutide particles, which addresses a practical barrier to clinical use: earlier iterations required a two-vial reconstitution system at the time of injection.

Deal structure and terms

On 24 September 2026, Nanexa announced a global exclusive licence and collaboration with Novo Nordisk covering PharmaShell for certain peptide drugs in obesity, type 2 diabetes and other cardiometabolic indications. The licence can span up to five programmes, targeting monthly and quarterly administration.

Nanexa is eligible to receive total payments of up to €1.165 billion, including €615 million in upfront payment and development and regulatory milestones. In addition, Nanexa is eligible to receive low single-digit royalties on global net sales of products developed under the agreement.

Of the total amount of €1.165 billion, €615 million consists of the initial payment plus development and regulatory milestones. The remainder consists of sales-related milestones. Novo will lead global development and commercialisation.

For context on Nanexa's partnership history: the company also signed a licence and option agreement with Moderna in December 2025 covering up to five compounds, which included an initial $3 million payment, potential milestone payments of up to $500 million and tiered single-digit royalties on product sales. The Novo Nordisk agreement is substantially larger and, according to Nanexa, is by far the largest it has signed.

Why Novo Nordisk is pursuing this

The agreement with Nanexa represents Novo's next attempt to solve the dosing-frequency problem, this time through formulation technology rather than through a new molecule. This framing is significant for observers of the broader GLP-1 landscape.

The competitive pressure on Novo is meaningful. Weekly injections remain a compliance and convenience constraint for patients on semaglutide. Oral semaglutide (Wegovy pill) partially addresses that problem, but oral GLP-1 formulations carry their own bioavailability limitations and dietary-restriction requirements. A once-monthly or once-quarterly injectable that delivers comparable or superior pharmacokinetics to weekly Ozempic or Wegovy would represent a material advance in patient adherence — and a durable competitive moat.

The new agreement grants Novo a global exclusive licence to Nanexa's PharmaShell ALD drug delivery technology platform for certain therapeutic peptide drugs in indications including obesity, type 2 diabetes and other cardiometabolic diseases. The collaboration includes development of long-acting injectable formulations with different administration-frequency profiles, with monthly and quarterly administration as target profiles.

Caveats and translation risks

Procurement teams and research organisations evaluating this development should note that the dataset supporting PharmaShell in semaglutide is currently preclinical. What remains to be established is whether PK control, local tolerability, dose loading and peptide stability hold up in humans. PharmaShell uses an ultra-thin inorganic ALD coating around individual drug particles to regulate release, but the disclosed monthly and quarterly semaglutide evidence remains preclinical.

The key diligence gap is translation: whether ALD-coated peptide depots can reproduce the desired exposure, tolerability, injectability and manufacturability in humans at commercial scale. Until human pharmacokinetic and safety data emerge, the €1.165 billion headline should be treated as a contingent ceiling, not economic value already transferred.

The specific Novo Nordisk peptide programmes covered by the collaboration have not been disclosed; Nanexa's public semaglutide data serve as a demonstrator for the platform's capabilities, but the molecules Novo intends to develop through PharmaShell are not known at this stage.

Implications for the peptide research sector

The deal is part of a broader pattern of pharma investment in long-acting peptide formulation technology. It mirrors the logic driving the Samsung Biologics / PolyPeptide transaction, which targets peptide API manufacturing capacity, and the Novo Nordisk / Kallyope agreement targeting novel obesity biology. Across all three, the common thread is that the peptide pipeline — particularly in cardiometabolic disease — is advancing faster than the infrastructure needed to manufacture, formulate and deliver peptide drugs at scale and with the convenience profiles that clinicians and patients will expect.

For UK research procurement professionals, the ALD approach is worth tracking as a formulation technique. If PharmaShell advances into human trials with Novo's peptide assets in 2027 or 2028, the platform could provide useful reference pharmacokinetic data for long-acting depot formulations of other GLP-1 class peptides, including those under investigation in academic settings. The platform's ability to achieve high drug loading in a small injection volume is also relevant to tolerability in early-phase clinical protocols.

Sources: Nanexa press release, 24 September 2026; Drug Discovery World, 28 September 2026; Manufacturing Chemist, 28 September 2026; Endpoints News, 25 September 2026; Biostock, 24 September 2026; Nanexa Q1 2026 interim report, 29 April 2026; On Drug Delivery / DDF Summit presentation, 2026; Lucid Diligence / LQ Ventures, October 2026