Eli Lilly Enters Partnership for Nucleic Acid Delivery Technology

Eli Lilly & Company recently acquired exclusive rights to Entos Pharmaceuticals’ Fusogenix nucleic acid delivery technology to develop nucleic acid products.

The companies will initially focus on multiple programs to research, develop, and commercialize proteo-lipid vehicles (PLV) to deliver therapeutic cargo targeting the central and peripheral nervous systems.

The Fusogenix delivery technology helps Eli Lilly access a novel delivery platform to solve key delivery challenges for many nucleic acid therapeutic modalities.

Nucleic acid-based therapies address the biological cause of various serious diseases with significant unmet medical needs.

But, leveraging nucleic acids as therapeutics is challenging because they are susceptible to degradation by nucleases, contribute to immune activation, and have physicochemical characteristics that prevent cell transmission.  

Therefore, safe and effective nucleic acid therapeutics require sophisticated delivery platform technologies.

“Overcoming barriers to the safe and effective delivery of such therapies to specific target cells is essential to realizing their potential. We look forward to working with Entos as part of our efforts to overcome this challenge and develop potential new therapies that may improve patient outcomes,” Andrew Adams, vice president of Lilly Genetic Medicine, said in the announcement.

Unlike conventional delivery systems, Fusogenix PLV’s are well tolerated at high systemic doses and retain maximal activity with repeated dosing.

So far, Entos has developed PLV formulations to deliver a wide range of nucleic acid therapies, including gene therapy, mRNA, miRNA, RNAi, and CRISPR.

Under the terms of the agreement, Entos will receive an initial payment of $50 million and be responsible for the generation, development, and optimization of PLVs using its Fusogenix platform technology.

Additionally, the company is eligible to receive up to $400 million in potential developmental and commercial milestone payments and royalties upon the successful development and commercialization of products.

Eli Lilly will be responsible for selecting PLVs for clinical development and commercialization.

“We are excited for the opportunity to play a part in Lilly’s ongoing quest to develop high-quality medicines and believe our collaboration with Lilly is an important validation of the potential value of our expertise and technology platform,” said John Lewis, PhD, founder and CEO of Entos.