Eli Lilly pays $60M upfront for radiopharmaceutical pact with Aktis

Aktis Oncology announced a discovery collaboration agreement with Eli Lilly (LLY) to generate anticancer radiopharmaceuticals using Aktis Oncology’s miniprotein technology platform. Under the terms of the agreement, Aktis will receive a $60M upfront cash payment for the collaboration in addition to an equity investment in Aktis by Lilly. In addition, Aktis will be eligible to receive up to an additional $1.1B in potential preclinical, clinical, regulatory and commercial milestones, as well as tiered royalties. In exchange, Lilly will receive worldwide rights to develop radiopharmaceutical therapeutic and diagnostic products discovered by Aktis on a defined set of targets selected by Lilly. “This collaboration with Aktis Oncology builds upon our growing radiopharmaceutical capabilities and provides access to an exciting and innovative technology for creating important and differentiated radiopharmaceuticals. We look forward to collaborating with Aktis and utilizing this emerging modality to bring forward meaningful new therapies for people with cancer,” said Jacob Van Naarden, President, Lilly Oncology. Shares of Eli Lilly are up 2% to $802.21 in morning trading.