Lilly and Avidity Biosciences Partner on New Drugs

Eli Lilly is collaborating with Avidity Biosciences to discover, develop and commercialize potential new medicines in immunology and other select indications.

The companies will use Avidity’s proprietary technology platform for antibody oligonucleotide conjugates (AOCs). Used in numerous applications from diagnostics to therapeutics, AOCs seek to combine the tissue selectivity of monoclonal antibodies and the precision of oligonucleotide-based therapeutics to potentially overcome barriers to target genetic drivers of disease.

Andrew Adams, Lilly’s chief scientific officer for RNA therapeutics, said Avidity’s expertise represents a promising avenue of research toward developing new RNA-based medicines.

Avidity will receive a payment of $20 million upfront as well as an investment of $15 million.  The US biotech is also eligible to receive up to roughly $405 million per target for development, regulatory and commercialization milestones along with mid-single to low-double digit tiered royalties on sales.

In separate news, Lilly has agreed to sell the rights in China for two legacy antibiotics – Ceclor and Vancocin – as well as a manufacturing facility in Suzhou to Chinese pharmaceutical company, Eddingpharm. Lilly will receive a deposit of $75 million followed by $300 million on completion.

“This transaction will enable Lilly China to better focus our resources on the exciting new therapies that we are launching in our core therapeutic areas, so that we can bring more life-changing medicines to patients in China,” said Julio Gay-Ger, president and general manager of Lilly China.

The US drugmaker said it will provide ongoing services to Eddingpharm for an undisclosed period of time to ensure continuity of supply.