Insitro has teamed up with Eli Lilly to help power programs into the clinic, tapping the Big Pharma for an option on technology to deliver siRNA molecules it discovered using its machine learning platform.
South San Francisco-based insitro emerged as a high-profile test case for the use of machine learning in drug discovery in 2018, when Daphne Koller got the biotech off the ground with the backing of ARCH Venture Partners, Foresite Capital, a16z, GV and Third Rock Ventures. Koller made her name in machine learning at Stanford University and entered the biotech sphere by taking a post at Alphabet’s Calico.
Six years after Koller founded insitro, the biotech has some of the materials it will need to start testing a candidate in humans. Insitro is looking to Lilly to fill in some of the gaps. The newly minted partners have formed three agreements.
The first two agreements give insitro options to license GalNAc delivery technology from Lilly. Insitro has discovered and developed two siRNA molecules to try to improve the treatment of conditions including metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease. However, the molecules need a delivery vehicle to reach the liver. Insitro has identified Lilly’s GalNAc technology as a vehicle that can meet that need.
GalNAc is a go-to technology for delivering siRNA to the liver. Alnylam uses GalNAc, a sugar molecule that binds to a protein found on liver cells, to deliver the nucleic acids in its approved medicines Givlaari, Oxlumo, Amvuttra and Leqvio.
The third agreement positions insitro and Lilly to work to discover and develop an antibody for a third target for metabolic disease. Insitro and Lilly will collaborate on early preclinical development. Once the program reaches candidate nomination, insitro will take over and handle all remaining development and commercialization. The biotech retains full global rights. Lilly could receive milestones and royalties.
Lilly has partnered with insitro through its external innovation unit Catalyze360-ExploR&D. News of today's deals comes two months after Lilly opened a $700 million R&D center in the Boston Seaport intended to “push the boundaries” of nucleic acid delivery.