Hong Kong-listed Metis TechBio said on Monday it has entered into a collaboration agreement with Eli Lilly worth up to $1.1 billion to research and develop tissue-specific drug delivery technologies.
The Chinese biotech will use its proprietary AI-driven drug-delivery platform to develop next-generation technologies aimed at improving how LNP-based drugs reach target tissues.
Metis will be eligible to receive an upfront payment in the low double-digit millions US dollars and up to about $1.1 billion in development, regulatory and commercial milestone payments.
It will also be eligible for tiered royalties at a single-digit percentage of annual net sales of products that are developed due to the collaboration.
The Chinese biotech will use its proprietary AI-driven ionizable lipid discovery and optimisation platform to develop delivery technologies aimed at improving the targeting and biodistribution of LNP-based therapies.
Metis and Lilly aim to discover and optimise novel LNP architectures that could improve tissue specificity and therapeutic performance, with potential applications across multiple disease areas.