Eli Lilly, Lycia Collaborate to Discover Targeted Drug Candidates

Eli Lilly and Company recently entered into a multi-year research collaboration and licensing agreement with Lycia Therapeutics to discover, deliver, and commercialize novel targeted drug candidates.   

Lycia Therapeutics uses its next-generation degradation approach to target extracellular proteomes, including cell surface receptors and secreted proteins. 

The companies will utilize the Lycia Therapeutics lysosomal targeting chimera (LYTAC) platform to discover and develop drug candidates for up to five targets in Eli Lilly and Company’s therapeutic areas, including immunology and pain.

The LYTAC platform will encourage the development of several therapeutic modalities, including antibodies and small molecules.

These treatments will address unmet medical needs and inhibit many targets previously considered “intractable” across various therapeutic areas and diseases, an Eli Lilly spokesperson said. 

“This collaboration with Lycia furthers Lilly’s strategy to utilize innovative new technology to treat challenging disease areas, such as immunology and pain,” Ajay Nirula, MD, PhD, vice president of immunology at Eli Lilly and Company, said in the announcement. 

“We believe Lycia’s technology may allow us to develop targeted therapeutics that were not previously feasible and make advances for patients in areas of high unmet need,” Nirula continued. 

Under the terms of the agreement, Eli Lilly and Company will be responsible for the preclinical and clinical development of candidates and will gain a global license to commercialize potential medicines discovered from the collaboration. 

Lycia Therapeutics will receive an upfront payment of $35 million and will be eligible to receive over $1.6 billion in potential milestone payments based on achievements of prespecified preclinical, development, and commercial milestones.

“With our differentiated LYTAC platform for targeted extracellular protein degradation, we look forward to collaborating with Lilly to advance novel therapies against challenging targets in underserved disease areas while we simultaneously advance our in-house pipeline of first-in-class LYTAC-based therapeutics,” said Aetna Wun Trombley, PhD, president and CEO of Lycia Therapeutics. 

In 2021, Eli Lilly and Company has collaborated with Biolojic to develop therapies for diabetes treatment, partnered with Kumquat to discover novel small molecule drug candidates for tumors, teamed up with Merus to develop bispecific antibody therapies, and worked with MiNA to boost overall drug discovery. In July, the company acquired Protomer Technologies to advance treatment for type 1 diabetes.