Nimbus, Lilly sign deal to develop new oral obesity drug

Jan 6 (Reuters) – Nimbus Therapeutics said on Tuesday it has entered into a multi-year research and licensing agreement with Eli Lilly to develop artificial intelligence-driven new oral treatments for obesity and other metabolic diseases.

The U.S. drugmaker will make upfront and near-term milestone payments of $55 million, with an additional $1.3 billion in development and commercial milestones to Nimbus, as well as royalties on global sales if the drug is approved.

Drug developers are increasingly adopting AI for discovery and safety testing to get faster and cheaper results, in line with a push by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to reduce animal testing in the near future.

In 2022, Nimbus sold an AI-designed compound to Takeda in a deal worth up to $6 billion. The psoriasis treatment recently cleared two late-stage trials, and the Japanese drugmaker plans to seek regulatory approvals this year.

Drugmakers are racing to develop weight-loss pills that could offer an alternative to Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy and Lilly’s Zepbound — both weekly injections — in a market expected to generate more than $150 billion in annual revenue by the early 2030s.

Nimbus will use its AI to help identify drug candidates, while Lilly will contribute its metabolic-disease expertise to develop an easy-to-take oral medicine for obesity.

The new collaboration follows the company’s 2022 research and licensing agreement with Lilly to develop oral drugs for cardiometabolic diseases.

Boston-based Nimbus develops pill-form drugs and has programs in cancer, inflammatory diseases and metabolic disorders.

(Reporting by Sahil Pandey in Bengaluru; Editing by Vijay Kishore)