Eli Lilly is busy making deals days after the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference wrapped. The Indianapolis Big Pharma signed collaborations with biopharma partner Evotec in a potentially $1 billion biobucks pact and with Abbisko Therapeutics in a deal worth up to $258 million.
Both collaborations involve metabolic diseases in some form. The tie-up with German partner Evotec revolves around chronic kidney diseases and diabetes, and the work with Shanghai-based Abbisko centers on an undisclosed cardiometabolic target.
The metabolic focus comes as Lilly awaits the FDA’s decision on its diabetes med tirzepatide, which is also in a pivotal trial for obesity. Lilly also has a phase 3 chronic kidney disease asset in empagliflozin and multiple other mid- and early-stage diabetes programs.
Under the Evotec deal, the biopharma company will look for potential drug candidates and hand off up to five to Lilly. The Big Pharma will then test the drugs in the clinic and commercialize them. The deal, initially set for three years, will see Lilly dole out up to $180 million per program, as well as royalties on net sales, which brings the total value up to $1 billion.
That’s a similar per-program price as Novo Nordisk’s deal with Evotec, which also targets chronic kidney disease, from August 2020. Novo had agreed to dish out $179 million each in upfront fees, research funding and milestones as part of that agreement. The companies will share preclinical responsibilities, while Novo will take over clinical development and commercialization.
Evotec’s biopharma agreements run the industry gamut: Bayer, Exscientia, Boehringer Ingelheim, Sanofi, Bristol Myers Squibb, UCB and Pfizer, among others. “Over a period of several years, Evotec has systematically built a proprietary patient database by conducting multiomics analyses of biospecimens from patient biobanks covering metabolic and kidney diseases,” said Cord Dohrmann, chief scientific officer at Evotec, in a statement.
For its part, Abbisko will lead discovery and development of molecules that modulate an undisclosed target. Lilly will step in with prior discovery information pertaining to the target and disease expertise. Upon advancement to agreed-upon endpoints, Lilly has the right to develop and commercialize the compounds.
Abbisko started trading on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in October 2021 after raising a $123 million series D led by The Carlyle Group last January.
The two deals follow Lilly’s $50 million upfront bet on Entos Pharmaceuticals’ proteolipid vehicles for nervous system targets earlier this month.