Orbis Medicines Accelerates Next-Generation Oral Macrocycle Platform with Enhanced Artificial Intelligence Capabilities of Gefion Supercomputer

Business Wire

03-06-2025

COPENHAGEN, Denmark--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Orbis Medicines, a leader in oral macrocycle drug discovery, and the Danish Center for AI Innovation (DCAI) today announced that Orbis has begun using Denmark's first AI supercomputer, Gefion, which is owned and operated by DCAI. Gefion will allow the company to accelerate its mission of developing oral alternatives to widely used biologics and targeting important intra- and extracellular proteins that are currently difficult or impossible to drug with orally bioavailable compounds.
Orbis is pioneering the systematic discovery and development of targeted, orally available macrocycles for diseases and targets traditionally treated with biologics. The company develops compounds known as n Cycles, which can address a wide range of validated protein targets with unique oral bioavailability and membrane permeability features.
'Our advanced n Gen platform helps us quickly create large numbers of custom-designed macrocycles with unique properties and broad medical applicability,' said Orbis CEO Morten Graugaard. 'By combining this platform with Gefion's computing power, we can extend beyond the nearly 140 billion compounds in our existing libraries to design entirely new collections of these molecules. This means we can explore an even broader range of chemical possibilities and more fully unlock the potential of macrocycles to improve healthcare.'
'Orbis' n Gen platform, which has already been used to design, synthesize and test more than 700,000 individual n Cycles, is an ideal application for Gefion's capabilities,' said Orbis Medicines Board Chair Mikael Dolsten, M.D., Ph.D. 'Combining the power of this supercomputer with our in-house target n Cycle data collection, generative AI, and n Cycle synthesis capabilities will accelerate the development of orally available macrocycles that have the potential to disrupt the current biologics market and provide new treatment options for patients.'
'Gefion is designed to deliver AI innovation at scale through immense computing power applied to the most challenging problems,' said Dr. Nadia Carlsten, CEO of DCAI. 'As a biomedical start-up with its own internal AI technology applied to drug design and the ability to generate vast data sets, Orbis is an ideal partner to demonstrate what Gefion can unlock when matched with specialist expertise.'
DCAI's Gefion supercomputer contains 1,528 NVIDIA GPUs and is optimized for large-scale AI-driven projects. Gefion enables innovators to utilize advanced computation to accelerate discovery in various fields, including biotechnology and drug discovery. Gefion has previously been used by researchers, start-ups, and large enterprises to develop new AI models and perform simulations in weather modeling, quantum computing, and business automation.
About Orbis Medicines
Orbis Medicines is pioneering a new era for oral macrocycle drug discovery. Its n Gen platform systematically delivers macrocycle candidates, termed n Cycles. These are optimized for oral bioavailability, which has historically hindered therapeutic development of this versatile class of molecules. Orbis' pipeline is initially focused on n Cycle candidates against targets validated by blockbuster biologic drugs delivered by injection. Proof-of-concept of Orbis' work has been published in Nature Communications and Nature Chemical Biology. The company has raised €116 million in venture funding to date, including a €90 million series A round led by NEA with new investors Lilly Ventures, Cormorant, EIFO and existing investors Forbion and Novo Holdings. Orbis is located in Copenhagen, Denmark and Lausanne, Switzerland. For more information, please visit: www.orbismedicines.com
About n Gen
n Gen is Orbis Medicines' technology platform for generating n Cycles, a new class of fully synthetic macrocycle compounds optimized for oral bioavailability and membrane permeability. It consists of multiple proprietary integrated elements in a 'lab in a loop' system starting with hit finding libraries of 100 billion compounds and target specific libraries designed by generative AI. The highly automated chemistry-based n Gen platform can synthesize and screen up to 100,000 distinct synthetic macrocycles in weeks, allowing the company to discover candidates with the right properties to enable oral dosing and intracellular targeting. The scale and quality of the data produced from these real compounds, paired with machine learning and generative AI, creates an industry-leading platform that de-risks and accelerates development.
About DCAI
The Danish Centre for AI Innovation (DCAI) owns and operates Gefion, Denmark's flagship AI supercomputer, designed specifically for large-scale AI projects. Gefion ranks among the most powerful supercomputers globally powered by 1.528 NVIDIA H100 Tensor Core GPUs. DCAI's mission is to lower the barrier for accessing advanced computing capabilities, enabling customers to innovate and fostering ecosystem growth. DCAI customers include academic researchers, startups, government institutions, and enterprise customers doing large scale innovation. DCAI was formed as a company and funded by the Novo Nordisk Foundation and EIFO in 2024.