Eli Lilly and Creyon Bio have entered into a partnership worth over $1bn to develop RNA-targeted oligonucleotide (oligo) therapies for a “broad range of diseases”.
The global licensing and multi-target research collaboration will see Creyon use its artificial intelligence (AI)-powered oligo engineering engine to design and optimise new drug candidates for Lilly’s named targets.
Oligos are short DNA or RNA molecules that can be used in a number of ways. Oligo-based medicines are “an ideal modality” for creating gene-centric therapies, according to Creyon, due to their ability to control the effective activity of genes through multiple mechanisms.
The nucleic acid drug development company said its platform is designed to enable a “more systematic and cost-effective approach to designing safe and active oligos” and move “beyond traditional trial-and-error methods”.
“Creyon has built an industry-first and only oligo engineering engine to efficiently design RNA-targeted oligo therapies using quantum chemistry principles rather than relying on traditional trial-and-error screening processes to significantly accelerate development timelines,” said Swagatam Mukhopadhyay, co-founder and chief innovation officer of Creyon.
Under the terms of the agreement, Creyon will receive $13m upfront, including cash and the purchase of Creyon equity by Lilly, and will be eligible for more than $1bn in development and commercialisation milestone payments.
In exchange, Lilly will be granted an exclusive licence to lead candidates for each target. If the drugmaker decides to move forward after certain milestones are achieved, it will be responsible for further research, development and commercialisation.
Creyon’s chairman and chief executive officer, Serge Messerlian, said: “We are pleased to partner with Lilly to advance our AI-designed oligos with the goal of making therapies safer and more effective for patients.”
Lilly has already made a number of deals this year. In February, the company entered into a global licensing agreement with OliX Pharmaceuticals to advance OliX’s phase 1 candidate for metabolic-associated steatohepatitis and other cardiometabolic indications.
Lilly also announced in January that it would be expanding its oncology pipeline by acquiring Scorpion Therapeutics’ PI3Kα inhibitor programme in a deal worth up to $2.5bn, and partnered with Alchemab Therapeutics in the same month to develop new therapies for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.