Privately owned drug discovery company Nimbus Therapeutics on Tuesday announced that it expanded its research collaboration with Eli Lilly (LLY) to develop an oral obesity therapy in a deal worth up to $1.3B.
Under the multi-year collaboration, the companies will jointly advance an early-stage, small-molecule discovery program for obesity based on Nimbus’s “computational chemistry and structure-based drug design approach,” the Boston, Massachusetts-based biotech said.
Per the terms, Indiana-headquartered LLY is expected to pay $55M worth of upfront and near-term milestone payments and up to $1.3B in total payments to Nimbus, including development, commercial, and sales milestones, as well as sales-based tiered royalties.
The latest deal builds on a prior collaboration Nimbus signed with Lilly (LLY) to develop drugs targeting cardiometabolic diseases.
LLY, Nimbus collaboration comes at a time when the weight loss drugmaker awaits FDA approval of its oral obesity therapy, orforglipron, early this year.