Cellular Intelligence acquires Novo Nordisk’s Parkinson’s Cell Therapy Program in AI-driven deal

USA—Boston-based biotech company Cellular Intelligence has secured global rights to Novo Nordisk’s experimental cell therapy program for Parkinson’s disease, marking a major step forward for the AI-focused startup as it expands into clinical-stage therapeutics.

The agreement comes seven months after Novo Nordisk shut down its cell therapy division as part of a broader restructuring effort to sharpen its focus on obesity and diabetes treatments.

Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

However, Novo Nordisk will receive milestone payments and royalties tied to the therapy’s future progress, while also taking an equity stake in Cellular Intelligence.

AI platform to drive therapy development

Cellular Intelligence plans to continue the clinical development of the Parkinson’s therapy using its proprietary artificial intelligence platform, which is designed to optimize cell therapy manufacturing and accelerate development timelines.

The program, known as STEM-PD, is an allogeneic pluripotent stem cell-derived dopaminergic progenitor therapy currently being evaluated in a first-in-human Phase I/II clinical trial.

The treatment aims to replace dopamine-producing neurons lost in patients with Parkinson’s disease.

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has already granted the therapy Fast Track designation and investigational new drug (IND) clearance for further clinical studies.

Cellular Intelligence combines multiplexing technologies with a foundation AI model trained on millions of biological perturbation datasets to predict how cells respond to external signals.

The company believes the platform can help improve manufacturing consistency, reduce production costs, and scale cell therapies more efficiently for global use.

According to the company, clinical and manufacturing data generated through the Parkinson’s program will also be used to train further and refine its AI models for broader regenerative medicine applications.

CEO highlights next phase of growth

Micha Breakstone, co-founder and CEO of Cellular Intelligence, described the acquisition as a defining milestone for the company.

He said the Parkinson’s therapy combines groundbreaking academic science with the manufacturing and development expertise of a global pharmaceutical company.

He added that Cellular Intelligence’s AI-native platform was specifically built to address the complexity of scaling advanced cell therapies for widespread patient access.

Recent reports also revealed that Cellular Intelligence has opened a laboratory in Copenhagen and hired several former Novo Nordisk employees who previously worked on the Parkinson’s project.

The company reportedly intends to launch a mid-stage clinical study in early 2027 as it advances the therapy into the next development phase.

Novo Nordisk had previously laid off around 250 employees when it exited cell therapy research in October 2025.

Since then, the company has been seeking partners or buyers for several of its discontinued assets.

Earlier this year, Aspect Biosystems acquired Novo’s stem cell-derived islet cell and hypo-immune cell engineering technologies for diabetes research.