Insilico Medicine & Eli Lilly Collaborate On Over $100 Mn Deal to Advance AI-Driven Drug Discovery

Under this agreement, Insilico will apply its generative-AI platform to generate, design, and optimize novel compounds for targets jointly defined by Lilly.

Hong Kong-based clinical-stage company Insilico Medicine and U.S. drugmaker Eli Lilly have entered a research and licensing collaboration valued at over $100 million to advance AI-driven drug discovery.

Under this agreement, Insilico will apply its generative AI platform to generate, design, and optimize novel compounds for targets jointly defined by Lilly.

The deal is built on a prior software-licensing arrangement signed between the two companies in 2023, under which Lilly became a user of Insilico’s AI drug-discovery tools.

Commenting on the partnership, Alex Zhavoronkov, PhD, Founder and Co-CEO of Insilico Medicine, said, "We are delighted to collaborate with Lilly, a global leader in the pharmaceutical industry, renowned for its commitment to medical innovation."

"Lilly has been a valued user of our Pharma.AI software suite, and this expanded collaboration further recognizes Insilico's AI-driven drug discovery capabilities while strengthening our longstanding partnership. By joining forces, we are accelerating the development of transformative therapies to address urgent patient needs worldwide,” he further added.

Further, the collaboration includes upfront and milestone payments to Insilico, as well as tiered royalties on net sales of any resulting products.

Moreover, the company has nominated over 20 pre-clinical candidates since 2021, claiming an average time from target nomination to pre-clinical candidate of approximately 13 months, which is reportedly significantly shorter than the typical 2.5 to 4-year timeframe.

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