Lilly to pay CSL $100M to license monoclonal antibody targeting IL-6

Dive Brief:

Eli Lilly inked another deal in the anti-inflammatory space, agreeing to pay CSL Ltd. $100 million to license a monoclonal antibody that targets interleukin-6 (IL-6).
Under the agreement announced Wednesday, CSL will retain rights to develop the drug, clazakizumab, to prevent cardiovascular complications in patients with end-stage kidney disease. The Australian company is currently testing the drug for that use in a Phase 3 trial.
Indianapolis-based Lilly will develop the medicine for other indications. As part of the deal, CSL is eligible for royalties as well as payments for reaching certain clinical, regulatory and commercial milestones.

Dive Insight:

Flush with cash from its best-selling obesity and diabetes drug franchise, Lilly has actively looked outside to beef up its pipeline in recent years. Already this year, the company has inked agreements to buy the biotechnology startup Orna Therapeutics for as much as $2.4 billion and Ventyx Biosciences for $1.2 billion to gain a drug that may treat a variety of immunological conditions.

Those deals followed the $3 billion buyout of Morphic Therapeutics in 2024 and a $1.1 billion purchase of Dermira in 2020. The Dermira takeover gave Lilly a different interleukin inhibitor, one that targets IL-13. Lilly now sells the medication as Ebglyss to treat eczema.

Clazakizumab was originally developed by Vitaeris, which CSL acquired in 2020. It’s designed to stop the overproduction of the cytokine IL-6 to reduce inflammation and the progression of a range of diseases. CSL’s development of the drug included a study to see if it could help prevent rejection and organ failure in kidney transplant patients, Fierce Biotech reported earlier. That trial ended early for lack of efficacy.

There is an established track record for medicines that target IL-6, however. Roche’s Genentech sells the IL-6 receptor antagonist Actemra for a range of inflammatory conditions, including rheumatoid arthritis and a form of interstitial lung disease. Sanofi and Regeneron also have an IL-6 drug called Kevzara that originally won U.S. approval in 2017 to treat rheumatoid arthritis.