Lilly and Avidity to collaborate on developing new immunology medicines

Eli Lilly and antibody oligonucleotide conjugates specialist Avidity Biosciences are to work together to discover, develop and possibly commercialise new oligonucleotide medicines in immunology and others indications, potentially including liver, muscle and cardiovascular related diseases. Avidity will use its monoclonal antibody and oligonucleotide-combining technology to progress new therapeutic approaches into the clinic. Lilly will make an upfront payment of $20m, and will invest $15m into the programme, while Avidity could also gain up to $405m per target in a series of development and commercialisation milestones and royalties.
Kent Hawryluk, chief business officer at Avidity, said: “This collaboration with Lilly provides an exceptional opportunity to leverage Avidity’s proprietary AOC platform in order to generate new therapeutic targets in disease areas that have been challenging to pursue using oligonucleotide-based approaches. Lilly’s extensive research, development, regulatory, and commercial capabilities make them an ideal partner, and we look forward to a long and productive relationship.”
Andrew Adams, chief scientific officer for RNA therapeutics at Lilly, said: “We are excited to expand our oligonucleotide research and development efforts through this strategic collaboration with Avidity, whose expertise in studying the combination of monoclonal antibodies and oligonucleotide-based therapies represent a promising avenue of research toward development of new RNA-based medicines.”