Eli Lilly has formed a partnership with Hong Kong's Metis TechBio worth up to $1.1 billion, gaining access to an AI drug delivery platform designed to improve therapeutic performance of drugs carried by lipid nanoparticles.
The collaboration will center on Metis' ionizable lipid discovery and optimization platform called AiLNP, which the company touts as the “world's first and only de novo lipid generation algorithm,” relying on a large lipid library, end-to-end screening and a lipid language model. By seeking out particles that can more efficiently and effectively target tissue, the technology helps reduce development time from in silico to in vivo validation, according to Metis.
With an upfront payment of “low double-digit millions of U.S. dollars,” Metis will be eligible to receive the rest of the funds through milestones, as well as potential royalties from resulting products.
Metis got its start as an idea out of MIT in 2017. By 2021, the fledgling company had secured $86 million in series A funds to support a clinical trial related to delivery of small-molecule and RNA therapeutics.
As for Lilly, the partnership marks the latest in a series of collaborations and acquisitions aimed at pumping up its capabilities in both innovative delivery of medicines and AI technology.
On the delivery side, this year alone has seen the Indianapolis pharma sign on the dotted line with companies like: QurCan Therapeutics, which specializes in non-viral, polymer-lipid nanoparticle delivery across the blood-brain barrier; Entos Pharmaceuticals, which uses proteolipid vehicles for neurological delivery; and academic groups such as the University of Texas at Austin to study LNP structural stability and performance.
The drugmaker, fueled by massive sales of its GLP-1 weight loss treatments, has also acquired companies in the space, including Verve Therapeutics and Engage Biologics, both of which came with technology for delivery of genetic material.
On the AI front, Lilly has invested in supercomputing alongside industry giant Nvidia, as well as AI discovery and development biotech Insilico Medicine.
“Delivery remains a critical determinant of therapeutic success, particularly as the industry expands into increasingly sophisticated modalities,” Metis CEO Chris Lai said in an Oct. 19 release. “By combining Metis' AI-powered platform with Lilly's scientific expertise and development capabilities, we aim to unlock a new generation of tissue-targeted delivery technologies that have the potential to transform how medicines reach patients.”
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