- Eli Lilly signed an AI drug development deal with Insilico worth up to $2.75 billion
- Insilico receives $115 million upfront and potential milestones plus royalties
- Lilly gains exclusive rights to develop and commercialize Insilico’s potential medicines
Eli Lilly & Co. has signed an AI-powered drug development deal with Insilico Medicine that could be worth up to $2.75 billion.
Under the deal, announced Sunday, Insilico is eligible for $115 million in upfront payments; other milestones could bring the value to $2.75 billion, plus tiered royalties on future sales. In return, Lilly gets the exclusive worldwide rights to develop and commercialize potential medicines.
The announcement builds on the partnership between the two companies, which have been working together since 2023. Hong Kong-listed Insilico is among the most advanced of the AI-enabled drug developers, with a suite of models that span the entire drug development process.
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The partnership with Insilico gives Lilly access to the firm's state-of-the-art AI platforms. The two companies plan to collaborate on multiple research and discovery programs for specific targets chosen by Lilly, according to a statement. The companies did not specify which disease areas or targets they're interested in.
Despite its success selling obesity drugs, Lilly is already working to build a pipeline of future medicines that can power its next era. It is investing heavily in AI, in hopes that it can speed up the typically arduous drug-development process. And with its windfall from weight-loss drugs, Lilly has built an Nvidia-powered supercomputer at its headquarters in Indianapolis and in January announced it would create a new $1 billion research lab in San Francisco.
“The challenge before us now is how would we find another success cycle before that one runs out, hopefully a lot sooner than it runs out, and sort of get exit velocity,” Lilly Chief Executive Officer Dave Ricks said at an event with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang in January. “Can we find more biology using AI? That is really the Holy Grail.”
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