Insilico Medicine announces $2.75 billion R&D collaboration with Eli Lilly

Hong Kong-listed Insilico Medicine has announced a global research and development collaboration with Eli Lilly aimed at accelerating the discovery and development of novel therapeutics across multiple therapeutic areas through artificial intelligence and automation.

The collaboration brings together Insilico’s AI-powered drug discovery engine and Eli Lilly’s established expertise in clinical development and disease-area research, with the shared objective of advancing promising therapeutic candidates more efficiently.

Under the agreement, Eli Lilly has secured an exclusive worldwide licence for the development, manufacturing, and commercialisation of potentially best-in-class novel oral therapeutics currently in preclinical development for selected indications.

In addition to the licensing agreement, both organisations will work together on multiple R&D programmes focused on targets selected by Eli Lilly. These programmes will combine Insilico’s Pharma.AI platform with Eli Lilly’s capabilities in therapeutic development across several disease areas.

Commenting on the collaboration, Alex Zhavoronkov, PhD, Founder and CEO of Insilico Medicine, said the agreement reflects the growing role of AI in addressing complex challenges in healthcare and drug discovery.

“From its inception, Insilico Medicine has been developing deep learning for end-to-end drug discovery. By deploying frontier AI technologies that scale from biomarkers to life models, world models of human and animal life, we can identify multi-purpose targets driving multiple diseases at the same time.”

He added:

“Working with Lilly, we aim to deliver transformative therapies that treat diseases with high unmet need. This collaboration is a testament to the power of AI in tackling the most complex challenges in human health.”

The financial terms of the agreement include an upfront payment of $115 million, with additional development, regulatory, and commercial milestone payments that could bring the total deal value to approximately $2.75 billion, alongside tiered royalties on future sales.

Andrew Adams, Group Vice President of Molecule Discovery at Eli Lilly, said the partnership will help accelerate therapeutic discovery across multiple disease areas.

“Insilico’s AI-enabled discovery capabilities represent a powerful complement to Lilly’s deep expertise in clinical development across multiple therapeutic areas.”

“This collaboration allows us to explore novel mechanisms and accelerate the identification of promising therapeutic candidates across multiple disease areas.”

The announcement highlights the continued convergence of artificial intelligence and life sciences, as pharmaceutical leaders increasingly partner with AI-driven biotech companies to improve the speed and precision of early-stage drug discovery.

Insilico Medicine continues to expand its work across areas including fibrosis, oncology, immunology, pain, obesity, and metabolic disorders, while also extending the application of its Pharma.AI platform into sectors such as advanced materials, agriculture, nutritional products, and veterinary medicine.

This latest collaboration with Eli Lilly marks another important development in the use of AI to support the discovery of therapies for diseases with significant unmet need.

Source

Insilico Medicine

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