Eli Lilly is walking through the Gate, inking a deal worth up to $856 million with a biotech aiming to build out a new small-molecule drug class.
The pact’s potential value includes an undisclosed upfront payment amount and equity investment in the California biotech Gate Bioscience, according to a July 24 release. The rest of the possible financial value comes from milestone payments plus royalties.
Together, the pair will use Gate’s discovery engine to identify small-molecule drugs that can selectively eradicate harmful extracellular proteins, drug candidates Gate has dubbed “molecular gates.”
These molecular gates are designed to eliminate difficult-to-drug proteins, potentially unlocking the door to treatment for diseases with high unmet medical need.
Gate will be eligible to receive some preclinical R&D support from Lilly ExploR&D, which is part of the pharma’s early-stage biotech ecosystem program Lilly Catalyze360. The Lilly outfit has already penned partnerships with siRNA-focused Insitro and antibody biotech Oblique Therapeutics.
“This collaboration fuels our vision to make molecular gates into medicines,” Gate CEO and cofounder Jordi Mata-Fink, Ph.D., said in the release. “Our drugs eliminate disease-causing proteins at their source with a convenient pill. Lilly’s expertise in developing innovative therapeutics to address unmet medical needs for the benefit of patients stands apart.”
Built in 2021, Gate secured a $60 million series A in November 2023 with backing from Versant Ventures, a16z Bio + Health, ARCH Venture Partners and GV. When the company emerged, it said opportunities ranged from inflammatory conditions to neurodegenerative disease and several cancers.
The biotech is currently in preclinical development and has yet to reveal any pipeline programs. The Lilly deal is Gate’s first publicly announced partnership.