Dive Brief:
- Eli Lilly is expanding its commitment to artificial intelligence-driven drug development, signing a deal with Hong Kong-based Insilico Medicine to develop and commercialize experimental drugs in preclinical development “across multiple therapeutic areas,” Insilico said Sunday.
- Per deal terms, Lilly will pay $115 million up front and could pay out up to a total of $2.75 billion based on achievement of development, regulatory and commercial milestones. Lilly could also pay tiered royalties on commercial sales should any of the experimental drugs gain approval.
- The announcement marks another AI-oriented deal for Lilly, which has offered up intellectual property to Insitro as well as biotech startups more generally through a discovery platform. Insilico, meanwhile, has ongoing collaborations with Menarini, Qilo Pharmaceutical Group, Hygtia Therapeutics, Exelixis and Servier, and joined public markets in 2025 with a 2.3 billion Hong Kong dollar ($292 million) initial public offering.
Dive Insight:
Lilly has been at the forefront of AI-driven drug development strategy, committing in 2024 to naming a chief AI officer as well as creating collaborations with biotechs to test how to use the technology to streamline the costly and time-consuming process of bringing new medicines to market.
The Indiana-based drugmaker, which has vaulted atop big pharma’s valuation rankings on its strengths in obesity, cancer and immunology treatments, will need to continue to innovate if it wishes to avoid steep “patent cliffs” that often follow the loss of exclusivity for blockbuster medicines. AI could help Lilly smooth its future revenue outlook.
"Insilico's AI-enabled discovery capabilities represent a powerful complement to Lilly's deep expertise in clinical development across multiple therapeutic areas," said Andrew Adams, group vice president of molecule discovery at Lilly, in a statement. "This collaboration allows us to explore novel mechanisms and accelerate the identification” of a variety of potential drugs.
Insilico has set out an ambitious agenda, disclosing 24 experimental medicines with targets ranging from cancer to lung disease to obesity, with the most advanced candidates in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis and inflammatory bowel disease in Phase 2 development. Eight are currently subject to deals. An unstated number in discovery are “available for licensing.”
The two partners could find some synergies in cancer treatment, metabolic disease and immunology, where Insilico has already used its technology to engineer drug candidates. Those candidates include some well-known targets in some disease areas — incretins in metabolic disease, Nav1.8 in pain, and CDK4 in cancer — but in large part, its disclosed portfolio consists of new targets.
Among its disclosed cancer targets is a “pan-KRAS inhibitor,” a target that has been tough for drugmakers to reach until recently and for which Lilly has a candidate.
