Eli Lilly and Camurus enter cardiometabolic health partnership worth up to $870m

Eli Lilly and Camurus have entered into partnership worth up to $870m to develop long-acting therapies in cardiometabolic health. The collaboration and licence agreement gives Lilly exclusive global rights to research, develop, manufacture and commercialise incretin products based on Camurus’ technology.

Camurus’ FluidCrystal is designed to deliver therapeutic levels of drug substances over extended periods of time with a single injection via a prefilled syringe or auto-injector pen.

The deal covers up to four Lilly proprietary drug compounds. This could include dual GIP and GLP-1 receptor agonists, triple GIP, glucagon and GLP-1 receptor agonists, and an option for amylin receptor agonists.

In exchange, Camurus will be eligible to receive up to $290m in upfront, development and regulatory milestone payments, as well as $580m in sales-based milestone payments and tiered mid-single digit royalties on global net product sales.

Cardiometabolic health is a key focus area for Lilly. In February, the company entered into a global licensing agreement with RNAi therapeutics specialist OliX Pharmaceuticals to advance a phase 1 candidate for metabolic-associated steatohepatitis (MASH) and additional cardiometabolic indications.

The alliance focuses on the development and commercialisation OliX’s OLX75016, which has already demonstrated efficacy in preclinical studies in addressing MASH, liver fibrosis and other cardiometabolic diseases.

Lilly also announced last month that its Zepbound (tirzepatide), a dual GIP and GLP-1 receptor agonist, was superior to Novo Nordisk’s GLP-1 receptor agonist Wegovy (semaglutide) across all weight reduction targets in a head-to-head study of the two approved drugs in adults who are obese or overweight with least one weight-related medical problem, but not diabetes.