UK-based Alchemab has secured a licensing agreement worth up to $415m with Eli Lilly for ATLX-1282, its investigational antibody therapy targeting amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and other neurodegenerative diseases.
The deal includes an undisclosed upfront payment, milestone payments tied to discovery, development, and commercialisation, as well as tiered royalties on future sales.
Under the agreement, Alchemab will oversee initial clinical development through early Phase I trials. Lilly will assume responsibility for later-stage development, regulatory approvals, and global commercialisation.
ATLX-1282 is the lead asset from Alchemab’s proprietary discovery platform, which identifies antibodies associated with resilience to disease by analysing immune responses in genetically at-risk but asymptomatic individuals.
The programme builds on a broader research collaboration between the two companies, which was announced in January 2025, to jointly discover and develop up to five novel ALS therapies.
According to Alchemab, ATLX-1282 originated from an analysis of antibody sequences found in individuals carrying genetic mutations linked to frontotemporal dementia (FTD), who remain symptom-free into old age. Alchemab’s platform also examines immune profiles of ALS patients with unusually slow disease progression to identify protective antibodies.
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By GlobalDataThe company’s approach combines laboratory-based protein science with computational methods, including machine learning and AI, supported by infrastructure such as Nvidia’s Cambridge-based supercomputing facilities.
“Our revolutionary computational and wet lab-based workflow has enabled us to sift through millions of antibodies to identify this target,” said Alchemab’s CEO Jane Osbourn.
The licensing deal comes at a time when ALS drug development has faced a series of setbacks. In January 2025, AbbVie and Calico’s experimental therapy fosigotifator failed to slow disease progression in a Phase II/III study. Around the same time, Denali Therapeutics also reported negative results for a Phase II/III trial of its ALS therapy DNL343.
Separately, Amylyx Pharmaceuticals withdrew its US Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved ALS therapy Relyvrio from the market in 2024 after a confirmatory Phase III trial demonstrated no statistically significant benefit over placebo.
Failure rates remain high in ALS research due to the disease’s complex pathophysiology and unclear underlying mechanisms. Despite investment and interest from large pharma companies, most candidates have not achieved meaningful clinical efficacy.
Lilly has been building its presence in the ALS space with several deals over recent years, including a $1.04bn acquisition of Prevail Therapeutics in 2020, a 2021 deal with Verge Genomics, and the $45m upfront payment for QurAlis’ preclinical treatment QRL-204 in 2024.
Only a handful of ALS therapies are currently approved by regulators, and those available offer limited benefit in terms of survival or functional decline. According to GlobalData, the ALS treatment market across the eight major markets (US, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, UK, Japan, and Canada) was valued at $318m in 2019 and is projected to grow to $1.28bn by 2029, driven by unmet clinical need and ongoing R&D activity.
GlobalData is the parent company of Pharmaceutical Technology.
Founded in 2019, Alchemab has raised more than $80m in funding from investors including RA Capital, Lightstone Ventures, SV Health Investors, DCVC Bio, and the Dementia Discovery Fund.
