Lilly forges a $415m ALS alliance with UK biotech Alchemab
Alchemab's chief executive, Jane Osbourn.
Eli Lilly has added another candidate to a growing pipeline of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) therapies, tapping UK start-up Alchemab for an antibody currently being prepared for clinical testing.
The licensing deal extends an earlier collaboration announced in January between Lilly and Alchemab, whose drug discovery platform uses artificial intelligence to identify potential therapeutic antibodies from samples taken from so-called 'resilient' individuals – those who show unusually slow rates of progression in their disease.
Financial terms of the new agreement include an upfront payment to secure rights to Alchemab's lead ALS candidate, ATLX-1282, as well as discovery, development, and commercialisation payments, with a total deal value excluding royalties of around $415 million, according to Alchemab's announcement.
The company's website indicates that ATLX-1282 is directed against UNC5C, a receptor found on motor neurons that has emerged as a potential target in ALS, as well as other neurodegenerative disorders, including frontotemporal dementia (FTD) and late-onset Alzheimer's disease.
The company used its library of around 6,000 patient samples across neurodegeneration, immunology, oncology and healthy ageing – and Nvidia's supercomputer in Cambridge – to identify an antibody in people with mutations that normally lead to FTD, but who remain well into old age.
The company's scientists worked back from the antibody sequence to identify the drug target and come up with evidence for a hitherto unidentified role in protecting neurons from degeneration. It is the first programme to arise out of Alchemab's platform, which analyses millions of antibody sequences from resilient individuals.
Lilly and Alchemab's earlier agreement covered a partnership to discover, develop and commercialise up to five novel therapeutics for ALS. Meanwhile, the big pharma group has been steadily building a position in ALS and other neurodegenerative diseases through a series of deals, including partnerships with Verge Genomics and QurAlis, a $1 billion takeover of Prevail Therapeutics, and an investment in Arkuda Therapeutics.
Alchemab's chief executive, Jane Osbourn, said the Lilly deal is a "landmark transaction" for the company, adding: "With Lilly's deep expertise in neurological conditions, they are ideally placed to speedily advance ATLX-1282 through the clinic, and maximise the potential to help patients."
She added that it will support moving Alchemab's in-house programmes in metabolic diseases, immunology and oncology towards the clinic. In 2021, the company started working with AstraZeneca on a cancer immunotherapy project in prostate cancer diagnosis and treatment.
