Vivani Medical, Inc. (NASDAQ: VANI) has signed a new agreement with Novo Nordisk, allowing the Danish pharmaceutical giant to evaluate NPM-139, Vivani’s semaglutide drug implant developed for chronic weight management.
NPM-139 is built on Vivani’s proprietary NanoPortal platform technology, which delivers semaglutide as a controlled-release subdermal depot over an extended period of time.
The agreement contains no exclusivity provisions for NPM-139 or for Vivani’s NanoPortal technology, leaving the company free to pursue similar arrangements with other partners.
The deal comes days after Vivani received ethics committee approval from Bellberry, a human research ethics committee in Australia, to initiate SLIM-1, a Phase 1 first-in-human clinical trial of NPM-139.
SLIM-1, which stands for Semaglutide ultra Long-acting IMplant in obesity, is an open-label, randomized, active comparator-controlled trial evaluating a low-dose NPM-139 against Wegovy injections of 0.25 mg per week over a four-week period.
The trial will enroll ten subjects per group, targeting obese or overweight individuals, and will assess the safety, pharmacokinetics, and tolerability of the implant.
Top-line results from SLIM-1 are expected before the end of 2026, with Vivani planning to advance the candidate into a Phase 2 dose-ranging study if findings are positive.
Vivani also aims to hold a pre-IND meeting with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and file an Investigational New Drug Application, with a Phase 2 launch in the SLIM program targeted for 2027.
Adam Mendelsohn, Ph.D., Vivani’s President and CEO, stated: “The new agreement announced today supporting our semaglutide implant program in chronic weight management demonstrates Novo Nordisk’s interest in evaluating our technology and its lead semaglutide application.”
Mendelsohn added: “We believe that our NanoPortal implants under development, including NPM-139, could address a growing segment of patients who would prefer a convenient once- or twice-yearly treatment option and the peace of mind that treatment could be stopped at any time if that became necessary.”
The evaluation agreement was signed concurrent with the Phase 1 trial initiation, suggesting Novo Nordisk is positioning itself to negotiate a formal option or license once human data become available, at which point the asset’s value would likely be higher.
An implant capable of delivering semaglutide for months at a time could represent a significant shift in GLP-1 drug administration, potentially addressing the adherence problems that have limited the real-world effectiveness of weekly injections.
Novo Nordisk has been active in pursuing GLP-1 delivery platform partnerships, having signed a deal with Vivtex in February 2026 for an oral biologics delivery platform valued at up to $2.1 billion.
For Vivani, the non-exclusive structure of the deal validates its implant platform while preserving the option to strike similar arrangements with other pharmaceutical companies developing GLP-1 therapies.
Semaglutide is the active molecule found in Novo Nordisk’s own Wegovy and Ozempic products, making the evaluation of an implant-based delivery mechanism a strategically significant undertaking for both parties.
