Eli Lilly Secures $2.75 Billion Global Rights to Engage Therapeutics' AI-Discovered GLP-1 Agonist

According to 1M AI News monitoring, Eli Lilly, one of the world's largest weight-loss drug companies, has reached a collaboration agreement with the AI pharmaceutical company Insilico Medicine (HKEX 03696) with a total potential value of approximately $2.75 billion. The agreement grants Eli Lilly global exclusive development, manufacturing, and commercialization rights to an AI-discovered GLP-1 diabetes oral drug. Insilico Medicine will receive an initial payment of $115 million, with additional payments and sales royalties based on regulatory and commercial milestones.

Eli Lilly's own GLP-1 drug, Mounjaro, is the second-highest-grossing drug globally in 2025, but the company is facing competition from Novo Nordisk's first oral weight-loss drug, leading to a 17% decline in the stock price this year. Eli Lilly's CFO, Lucas Montarce, previously stated that the company is "heavily investing" in AI research and has built a Nvidia-powered supercomputer at its headquarters. In January, the company announced the construction of a $1 billion new research laboratory in San Francisco. Lilly Asia Ventures is one of Insilico Medicine's top ten shareholders, and the collaboration between the two companies began in 2023.

Insilico Medicine, founded in 2014 at Johns Hopkins University, is one of the first companies to apply generative AI to drug discovery. Founder Alex Zhavoronkov stated that the company has used AI to develop at least 28 drugs, with nearly half of them entering clinical trials. The company went public on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in December last year, is currently not profitable, and licensing deals are its primary source of revenue.