Eli Lilly has partnered with insitro to advance new treatments for metabolic diseases, including metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD).
The new drugs developed under the collaboration, which comprises three strategic agreements, will be based on targets identified by insitro using its artificial intelligence/machine learning (AI/ML)-based platform.
The first two agreements give insitro an option to in-licence Lilly’s clinical stage GalNAc delivery technology. The discovery and development company will then combine this with its two distinct siRNA molecules, specifically directed toward a different target in the liver.
The third agreement will see Lilly and insitro work together to discover and develop an antibody for a third metabolic disease target. The companies will collaborate on early preclinical development activities until development candidate nomination, when insitro will be responsible for all remaining development and commercialisation.
Though financial details of the deal have not been disclosed, insitro said it will retain full global rights to its programmes across all three agreements, with Lilly eligible to receive potential milestones and royalties.
Affecting an estimated 100 million people in the US, MASLD is caused by a buildup of fat in the liver in people with diabetes, obesity, high blood pressure, or high cholesterol who drink little to no alcohol. There are currently no approved interventional treatments for the condition and it is often managed by diet and lifestyle changes.
Daphne Koller, founder and chief executive officer of insitro, said: “Our proprietary AI/ML platform… has identified several high-value targets with extensive support in human genetics and translatable models.
“These could help provide transformative impact for patients with metabolic disease by addressing it at its root, and bringing together the best of biotech and pharma skill sets accelerates our impact.”
The partnership comes just one month after Lilly entered into a multi-year agreement worth up $1bn with HAYA Therapeutics to discover regulatory genome targets for obesity and related metabolic conditions.
The collaboration centres around HAYA’s proprietary regulatory genome discovery platform, which the partners are using to identify, characterise and validate multiple long non-coding RNA targets for the potential development of new treatments.