Privately owned biotech firm Seamless Therapeutics on Wednesday announced a global research and licensing deal worth up to $1.12B with Eli Lilly (LLY) to develop treatments for hearing loss conditions based on its gene editing platform.
As part of the deal, Seamless will focus on developing recombinases, a group of enzymes designed to enable therapeutic editing in certain genes related to hearing loss.
Indiana-based Lilly (LLY) will obtain an exclusive license to the recombinases programmed by the company, which it will then advance through drug development and commercialization.
Per the terms, the Dresden, Germany-based biotech will receive over $1.12B from LLY, including potential development and commercial milestone payments in addition to tiered royalties on commercialized products.
“This collaboration is a validation of our gene editing platform and its broad disease-modifying potential,” said Albert Seymour, CEO of Seamless.
