Eli Lilly persists with a $1 billion deal against Nvidia.
Eli Lilly, a leading US pharmaceutical company, has made a significant investment in the obesity market with a strategic collaboration worth $1.3 billion with Superluminal Medicines. The partnership aims to develop novel oral small-molecule therapies targeting G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) to combat obesity and related cardiometabolic diseases.
The collaboration leverages artificial intelligence (AI) to identify drug candidates, a promising approach given GPCRs' crucial roles in appetite regulation, energy expenditure, and metabolism. Despite being at an early stage of exploration for obesity treatment, GPCRs hold significant potential due to their involvement in metabolism, cell growth, and immune regulation.
Under the terms of the deal, Eli Lilly gains exclusive rights to develop and commercialize compounds discovered via Superluminal’s AI-powered GPCR platform. The financial agreement includes upfront payments, milestone-based R&D payments, equity investments in Superluminal, and tiered royalties based on net sales. This structure demonstrates Eli Lilly's strategy of blending innovation with commercial incentives to capture value from the growing obesity drug market projected to exceed $150 billion within the next decade.
This strategic move underscores Eli Lilly’s commitment to leveraging cutting-edge AI technology to expand its obesity pipeline and maintain a competitive edge in this lucrative market segment. The collaboration is another example of Eli Lilly's active involvement in acquisitions and licensing deals.
Nvidia's venture capital arm, NVentures, also invested in Superluminal Medicines' Series A round. The payments to Superluminal Medicines are contingent on the successful development of a candidate drug. Superluminal Medicines, founded in 2022, will receive payments up to $1.3 billion, including upfront and short-term payments, equity investment, development and commercialization milestone payments, and tiered royalty rates on net sales.
Despite some setbacks with Eli Lilly's oral GLP-1 obesity drug orforglipron, whose phase 3 results showed a 12% weight loss efficacy below expectations, the company continues to focus on balancing accessibility with profitability. The company maintains a strong GLP-1 franchise while pursuing pipeline resilience through new molecular entities like those potentially coming from this AI-GPCR collaboration.
For investors interested in understanding Eli Lilly's position, AKTIONÄR, a publication, offers insights. The latest issue of AKTIONÄR can be downloaded here.
The acquisition strengthens Eli Lilly's presence in the growing obesity market, reflecting the company's long-term growth strategy despite short-term regulatory and competitive risks. This strategic collaboration marks an exciting step forward in the development of next-generation oral therapies for obesity and related metabolic disorders.
- Eli Lilly's investment in Superluminal Medicines, a collaboration aimed at developing novel oral small-molecule therapies for obesity, extends beyond pharmaceuticals, as the agreement also covers finance, with tiered royalties based on net sales.
- Beyond the obesity market, this strategic partnership between Eli Lilly and Superluminal Medicines seeks to capitalize on the potential of GPCRs not only for health-and-wellness but also for broader business applications, given their crucial roles in various physiological processes.
