Eli Lilly and Company and Lycia Therapeutics have signed a multi-year collaboration and licensing agreement for the discovery and development of novel lysosomal targeting chimera (LYTAC) degraders.
The agreement focuses on the development and commercialisation of novel targeted therapeutics using Lycia’s LYTAC protein degradation technology.
Lycia will target the untapped extracellular proteome, including cell surface receptors and secreted proteins by leveraging its next-generation degradation approach.
The LYTAC platform is expected to help the development of several therapeutic modalities, including antibodies and small molecules, with the potential to prevent several targets that were earlier considered intractable across a range of therapeutic areas and diseases.
Eli Lilly and Company Immunology vice-president Ajay Nirula said: “This collaboration with Lycia furthers Lilly’s strategy to utilise innovative new technology to treat challenging disease areas, such as immunology and pain.
“We believe Lycia’s technology may allow us to develop targeted therapeutics that were not previously feasible and make advances for patients in areas of high unmet need.”
Under the agreement terms, Lilly and Lycia will make use of the latter’s LYTAC platform to discover and develop novel degraders for up to five targets.
This is aimed at addressing key unmet medical needs in Lilly’s therapeutic areas of focus, including immunology and pain.
Activities related to preclinical and clinical development of candidates will be handled by Lilly, which will receive an exclusive worldwide license to commercialise potential medicines resulting from the agreement.
Lycia will receive $35m upfront payment and is also eligible for potential milestone payments of more than $1.6bn based on the achievement of prespecified preclinical, development and commercial milestones.
Additionally, it will receive tiered royalties from mid-single to low double-digits on sales that result from the agreement.