Eli Lilly is expanding its footprint in genetic medicine, announcing Wednesday an agreement with Germany-based startup Seamless Therapeutics to develop treatments for hearing loss.
The alliance gives Lilly access to a type of next-generation gene editing technology. Seamless engineers and programs “recombinases,” or enzymes that rearrange DNA, in such a way that they can precisely pinpoint and modify specific areas of the genome. Through the deal, Seamless will design certain recombinases to correct mutations in unspecified “genes of interest” in hearing loss, the companies said.
Lilly didn’t specify how much guaranteed cash Seamless will receive initially. But the startup is eligible for over $1.12 billion in total payouts, which includes an upfront payment and a variety of unspecified milestones.
The deal adds to a concerted push by Lilly, which recently flirted with a $1 trillion market value thanks to its diabetes and obesity medicines, into the field of genetic medicine.
Over the last several years, Lilly has made several bets on biotech companies working on gene therapies, as well as treatments that edit DNA or RNA. Those deals have stocked Lilly with a pipeline of treatments for high cholesterol, vision and hearing loss, among other disorders, at a time when many genetic medicine developers have struggled to stay afloat.
Hearing loss, in particular, has emerged as one area of focus for Lilly. A program it inherited through an acquisition of Akuous has shown early promise. The company also teamed up with RNA editing specialist Rznomics last year in search of a hearing loss treatment.
Those investments have come amid a time of accelerating research progress for gene-based hearing loss treatments. Last year, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals published results in the New England Journal of Medicine that the Food and Drug Administration found so compelling it awarded the company a ”national priority” review voucher that can be used to drastically speed up drug reviews. Lilly’s similar program from Akuous is also advancing, as is a treatment from French biotech Sensorion, which received a 60 million euro investment from Sanofi and other backers on Wednesday.
Seamless launched in 2023 with $12.5 million in seed funding led by Wellington Management and Forbion. The Lilly deal “is a validation of our gene editing platform and its broad disease-modifying potential,” CEO Albert Seymour said in a statement.
