Eli Lilly is joining forces with artificial intelligence (AI)-powered biotech, Insilico Medicine, in a drug discovery and development agreement worth up to $2.75bn.
Through this collaboration, Lilly will use Insilico’s Pharma.AI platform to support its novel oral drug discovery and development efforts spanning several disease areas. As per the terms of the deal, Lilly will own the exclusive global development and commercialisation rights to any of the candidates created from this agreement.
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Insilico will also lend Lilly a hand in the development process, as the biotech will help to progress multiple R&D programmes associated with targets picked by Lilly.
In exchange for the use of Insilico’s services, Lilly will hand over $115m upfront, while committing itself to paying out up to $2.63bn in development, regulatory and commercial milestone payments tied to the preclinical candidates produced. Insilico will also be eligible to receive tiered royalties on any future sales.
In a 29 March statement, Insilico noted that the pair would primarily focus on diseases with high unmet needs, though no further details on the specifics of the collaboration were disclosed.
This pact deepens Lilly’s connection with Insilico, as the pair have previously inked several AI-focused deals, including a research agreement worth more than $100m in November 2025. Lilly and Insilico first collaborated in 2023 through an AI licensing agreement.
Lilly backs AI-driven dealmaking approach
Lilly’s pact with Insilico comes amid a flurry of dealmaking activity by the Indiana-based pharma, as it looks to further stock its pipeline with profits generated from the burgeoning commercial success of its tirzepatide franchise.
Lilly has signed several deals in recent months that centre around AI, which the company is embracing to speed up development timelines and discover new drugs. As per GlobalData’s Pharmaceutical Intelligence Center, Eli Lilly signed 16 AI-focused deals in 2025, including seven licensing agreements worth more than $2bn in value. These include an AI-driven RNA therapy deal with Creyon Bio worth more than $1bn, which the pair signed back in April 2025.
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Outside of the AI realm, Eli Lilly has also acquired multiple companies in 2026 thus far, having handed over $1.2bn and $2.4bn to acquire inflammatory specialist, Ventyx Biosciences and in vivo cell therapy developer, Orna Therapeutics, in January and February 2026, respectively.
Currently, the company is riding high on the commercial victories of Zepbound and Mounjaro in the obesity and type 2 diabetes markets, which have pushed the pharma giant into the $1trn market cap club primarily inhabited by tech players like Apple, Meta and NVIDIA.
Across the wider pharma sphere, several companies are also investing in AI to power the next generation of pipeline development.
This includes UK-Swedish pharma company, AstraZeneca, which agreed to acquire Massachusetts-quartered Modella AI to support drug development within its oncology pipeline back in January 2026.
