Lilly taps RNA biotech for $1 billion weight-loss collaboration

The largest pharmaceutical company in the world has tapped Swiss biotech Haya Therapeutics to develop weight-loss drugs that target a specific type of RNA.

Eli Lilly and Company—whose market capitalization currently hovers around $855 billion because of the commercial success of its weight-loss drugs Mounjaro and Zepbound—will collaborate with Haya to find new drug targets for chronic metabolic conditions and obesity. Lilly will pay Haya an undisclosed amount up front that includes an equity investment. Overall, the deal is worth up to $1 billion in potential milestone payments and royalties.

Founded in 2017, Haya has homed in on long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) as potential targets to treat diseases. These RNA molecules are not translated into proteins but, rather, interact with and regulate biological processes. They help make up what’s sometimes referred to as the regulatory genome.

Haya has so far begun developing lncRNA-targeting drug candidates for fibrotic heart and lung disorders as well as cancer. The Lilly collaboration will mark the start-up’s entry into the increasingly competitive weight-loss space.

“People are really starting to think about the large indications. We’ve seen this obviously in the cardiometabolic space and the obesity space, and I’ve sensed and felt a shift in priority from Big Pharma,” Haya CEO Samir Ounzain told C&EN earlier this year. “We believe the power of our platform can be applied to any cell state and any tissue. So absolutely, in the mid- to long term, I think the best way to demonstrate the potential of the regulatory genome is to find appropriate partners.”

The Lilly-Haya deal marks the second Big Pharma collaboration in as many weeks to focus on lncRNAs. Bayer recently agreed to pay NextRNA Therapeutics up to $547 million to develop lncRNA-targeting small molecules for unspecified cancers.