Eli Lilly and Company has signed a research and collaboration agreement with Swedish biopharmaceutical company BioArctic to develop a potential treatment for neurodegenerative diseases.
The partnership will combine BioArctic’s BrainTransporter technology with an unidentified Lilly drug candidate.
Go deeper with GlobalData
Discover B2B Marketing That Performs
Combine business intelligence and editorial excellence to reach engaged professionals across 36 leading media platforms.
BioArctic is set to receive a $30m upfront payment. If the new product progresses successfully, the company could gain additional milestone payments of up to $770m.
It is also eligible for tiered mid-single-digit royalties on future global sales should the candidate achieve regulatory approval and reach the market.
The collaboration involves BioArctic creating a new drug candidate by linking its platform with Lilly’s molecule.
According to the terms, Lilly will be responsible for the subsequent global development and commercialisation of the new product and any related compounds.
BioArctic CEO Gunilla Osswald said: “I’m excited by today’s announcement and proud that a large pharmaceutical company sees potential in our proprietary BrainTransporter technology. Lilly shares our ambition to do more for patients with severe neurological disorders, and this collaboration is a testament to that.”
This agreement marks the fourth time BioArctic has partnered on projects involving its BrainTransporter platform. The company maintains rights to use this technology outside the scope of its four existing collaborations.
The platform can be applied to a range of therapeutic areas to deliver various biologics and modalities to the brain, indicating further potential partnership opportunities in the future.
It is built to help drugs cross the blood-brain barrier by targeting the transferrin receptor.
By facilitating active transport of medicines into the brain, the technology aims to improve distribution, efficacy, safety, and dosing of therapies.
Earlier this month, Lilly entered a licensing agreement worth up to $1.26bn with Hanmi Pharm to develop, manufacture and commercialise Hanmi’s biologic drug candidate, sonefpeglutide (a LAPS GLP-2 analogue), worldwide excluding Korea.
