UK News

Sosei Heptares will be eligible to receive $37m in upfront cash from Eli Lilly, with another $694m in further development and commercial milestone payments, plus tiered royalties.

The agreement will leverage Sosei Heptares’ StaR® technology and structure-based drug design (SBDD) platform, and Eli Lilly’s drug development and commercialisation and therapeutic area expertise. Sosei Heptares will focus its efforts on multiple GPCR targets nominated by Eli Lilly to deliver novel target-sensitive small molecule hit candidates.

Matt Barnes PhD Head of UK Research & Development, Sosei Heptares commented: “This new agreement with Lilly further reinforces our position as a global partner of choice for GPCR-focused drug discovery targeting major diseases where patients remain in need of new and effective therapies. We provide a highly attractive approach that is recognised by many of the world’s leading biopharmaceutical companies and are delighted to add Lilly to that list. Lilly is a recognised world leader in diabetes and metabolic diseases, and we look forward to a collaboration that brings together our respective and complementary expertise with the goal of identifying and developing novel candidates to advance in these important areas of unmet need.”

Ruth Gimeno PhD, Group Vice President, Diabetes and Metabolic Research, Lilly said, “Continued innovation across diabetes and metabolic diseases has been a key priority for Lilly for many years. This requires us to access cuttingedge expertise and technologies to successfully advance our mission in this area. We look forward to combining forces with Sosei Heptares and are confident that this new partnership will enable us to unlock new targets and generate novel treatments for these diseases and bring new treatments to patients.”