Eli Lilly has signed a research and licence agreement with Nimbus Therapeutics, aiming to develop a new oral weight loss drug, deepening ties between the two companies.
The latest partnership will see Lilly pay Nimbus $55m upfront, with $1.3bn on the line in developmental and commercial milestone payments. Royalties are also included for any oral drug approved as a result of the research collaboration.
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In return for the payments, Nimbus is tasked with using its computational chemistry and structure-based drug design to discover a small molecule drug for the treatment of obesity and other metabolic diseases.
Lilly and Nimbus started working together in a deal worth up to $496m inked in 2022. In that partnership, Nimbus and Lilly were targeting AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK), an enzyme important in the body’s energy pathways, for cardiometabolic diseases.
“We are pleased to deepen our collaboration with Nimbus, a team that has demonstrated exceptional ability to tackle complex drug discovery challenges,” said Ruth Gimeno, group vice president, diabetes and metabolic research and development at Lilly.
Obesity drugs have helped fuel a period of intense growth for Lilly in the past year. The company’s weight loss injectable Zepbound (tirzepatide) saw sales jump 185% in Q3 2025 versus Q3 2024 – bringing in $3.6bn. Performance in Lilly’s cardiometabolic portfolio helped it become the first healthcare company to reach a market cap of $1tn in November 2025.
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By GlobalDataBut Lilly is not resting on its laurels. In December 2025, rival Novo Nordisk gained US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval for oral Wegovy (semaglutide), becoming the first glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonist (GLP-1RA) pill for weight loss. Lilly’s own candidate, orforglipron, is still under FDA review. Lilly has invested billions of dollars in manufacturing sites in anticipation of approval. The latest partnership with Nimbus potentially represents a further bolstering of its obesity pipeline in a bid to maintain market dominance.
Gimeno added: “Working together to develop this novel obesity therapy represents an important addition to Lilly’s efforts to advance innovative treatment options for patients with metabolic disorders.”
Lilly isn’t the first big pharma to tie a deal with Nimbus. In 2023, Takeda acquired Nimbus’ tyrosine kinase 2 (TYK2) programme for immune diseases for $4bn. Takeda unveiled Phase III data from the drug, now known as zasocitinib, in December 2025.
