Orbis Medicines secures €90m to advance oral macrocycle drugs

Danish biotech company Orbis Medicines has raised € 90 million (US$ 93.4 million) in a Series A funding round. The investment will support the development of its pipeline of oral macrocycle drugs, known as ‘nCycles,’ which target validated blockbuster biologic pathways. Led by NEA, the round included Lilly Ventures, Cormorant, the Export and Investment Fund of Denmark, Novo Holdings and Forbion.

Forbion, a Dutch life sciences venture capital firm and founding investor in Orbis, has supported the company since its early days, including participation in the 2024 seed round. Its continued involvement highlights its confidence in Orbis’ mission to develop next-generation oral therapies.

Orbis uses its proprietary nGen platform, combining automated chemistry with machine learning, to design oral macrocycles. These compounds, though highly versatile, have historically been difficult to develop for oral use. Orbis aims to deliver patient-friendly, oral alternatives to biologic drugs, particularly for chronic diseases.

The company has also named Morten Graugaard as Chief Executive Officer. Graugaard, with over 20 years of experience in life sciences, previously served as Executive Chair of Orbis’ Board. “The support from this group of investors is further validation of the exemplary science and exciting potential of Orbis Medicines,” said Graugaard.

With this significant funding and support from key investors, Orbis is well-positioned to advance its development of oral macrocycle therapies. Interestingly, the technology has its roots in Switzerland: Its scientific foundation was developed by Prof. Christian Heinis and Sevan Habeshian at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL). The chemical methods which Orbis uses to rapidly generate vast libraries of diverse macrocycle compounds ready for immediate assay were previously published in Nature Communications.