InnoCare Pharma has entered a research collaboration and license agreement with Eli Lilly and Co. to discover and develop medicines against as many as five targets.
Under the agreement, InnoCare is eligible to receive up to $100 million in upfront and near-term payments and up to approximately $3.25 billion in development and commercial milestone payments. The company could also receive tiered royalties in the single-digit percentage range on annual net sales of resulting products.
The potential value of the agreement is therefore up to about $3.35 billion before royalties. Payments are subject to specified conditions, and InnoCare said there is uncertainty over the final amount it will receive.
InnoCare will use its drug-discovery platform and research capabilities to identify and advance compounds for the selected targets. The companies said the collaboration will focus on developing medicines for areas with unmet medical needs but did not identify the targets, disease indications, therapeutic modalities or development timelines.
The agreement extends InnoCare’s work in cancer and autoimmune diseases, the company’s primary therapeutic areas. InnoCare is a commercial-stage biopharmaceutical company listed in Hong Kong and Shanghai.
InnoCare said its pipeline includes three approved medicines: orelabrutinib, tafasitamab and zurletrectinib. It also has more than 10 drug candidates in clinical development and multiple preclinical programs, according to the company.
InnoCare operates offices in Beijing, Nanjing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Hong Kong and the United States.
The collaboration assigns InnoCare responsibility for discovery and advancement of compounds against the agreed targets. The announcement did not detail the development, regulatory or commercialization responsibilities for Lilly, or identify territories covered by any resulting product licenses.
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