Eli Lilly has tapped Camurus in a deal worth up to $870 million for its drug delivery technology to develop four long-acting incretin candidates.
The technology can be used on any of Lilly’s dual GLP-1/GIP receptor agonists as well as triple GLP-1/GIP/glucagon receptor agonists. There’s also the option to develop the tech with amylin receptor agonists,
according
to the Tuesday release.
Lilly will pay the Swedish biotech $290 million in upfront, development, and regulatory milestone payments, and potentially another $580 million based on future sales milestones and tiered mid-single-digit royalties for the four products.
Camurus’
stock
was up 31% on the Swedish stock exchange on Wednesday morning.
The biotech’s technology, dubbed FluidCrystal, allows the development of a lipid-based liquid that becomes a gel once injected into the body. The gel would then make way for the slow release of the active ingredient — in this case, an incretin — “from days to months,” the company said.
Lilly has four potential assets that could be candidates for FluidCrystal, according to a Tuesday note from Jefferies analysts. The big pharma’s blockbuster drugs Zepbound and Mounjaro could be up for consideration, as well as two clinical assets: the GLP-1/GIP/glucagon agonist retatrutide and the amylin eloralintide, they added.
There’s increasing interest in long-acting obesity drugs. Notably, Metsera
recently
reported that in a Phase 2 study, its long-acting injectable GLP-1 agonist MET-097i reduced mean body weight by 11.3% at three months. MET-097i has a half-life of over two weeks.