Lilly will gain worldwide rights for the development and commercialisation of DACRA molecules to treat obesity. Credit: New Africa/Shutterstock.

Nordic Bioscience subsidiary KeyBioscience has announced an extension of its strategic partnership with Eli Lilly, focusing on the development of a new class of treatments for obesity and associated disorders.

Lilly will expand its rights to the dual amylin calcitonin receptor agonists (DACRA) platform of KeyBioscience to develop DACRAs.

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The extended agreement also includes a new molecule expected to enter Phase II clinical trials later in 2024, targeting obesity and osteoarthritis (OA).

Lilly will gain worldwide rights for the development and commercialisation of DACRA molecules under the extended deal.

KeyBioscience will be responsible for conducting and completing the upcoming study, which plans to enrol 600 participants.

The study will focus on dual primary endpoints: the impact on body weight and the alleviation of OA pain.

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Nordic Bioscience CEO Morten Karsdal stated: “DACRAs have been shown to be potent weight loss agents with potential for additional insulin sensitisation. We are extremely excited to move forward with the clinical programme, as this class in other Phase II trials has shown significant weight loss in people with obesity and clinically meaningful improvement of glycaemic control. 

“We believe this is a very competitive molecule with very high potency and low immunogenicity risk and look forward to collaborating further with Lilly to advance this important work.”

KeyBioscience will receive an initial payment, with potential downstream payments of up to $1.4bn upon specific development, regulatory and commercialisation milestones, and tiered royalties on net product sales.

Lilly diabetes, obesity and cardiometabolic research group vice-president Ruth Gimeno stated: “Dual amylin-calcitonin receptor agonists are an emerging new class of obesity therapies with potential benefits in additional indications. We welcome the expanded collaboration with KeyBioscience and are excited to explore the potential of Key’s DACRA molecules in the clinic.”

The latest development comes after Eli Lilly teamed up with insitro to develop treatments for metabolic diseases, combining insitro’s AI ML platform with Lilly’s drug delivery technology.