Eli Lilly has exercised its option to progress a phase 1 ready immunometabolism-targeting therapy for chronic autoimmune and inflammatory diseases, triggering an undisclosed milestone payment to its partner Sitryx Therapeutics.
Lilly will now lead the further development and commercialisation of SIT-011, with Sitryx also eligible to receive additional development, regulatory and commercial milestones plus tiered royalties.
The companies have been working together on developing programmes exploring small-molecule immunometabolism-targeting therapies, including SIT-011, since 2020.
Sitryx describes the field of immunometabolism as a “rapidly emerging and exciting” area of investigation into the role of intracellular metabolic pathways in immune cells.
Changes to these pathways are essential in the development of severe diseases such as autoimmune conditions, according to Sitryx, and immunometabolic therapies offer differentiated approaches to treatment by correcting immune cell function.
Ajay Nirula, vice president of immunology at Lilly, said: “Regulating the metabolism of immune cells is rapidly gaining ground as a promising approach to address autoimmune and inflammatory diseases.”
“We are pleased to progress development of SIT-011 and to continue our fruitful collaboration with Sitryx to develop novel medicines that address the unmet needs of patients,” he added.
A second candidate, SIT-047, is a one-carbon metabolism programme that continues to be progressed by Sitryx in collaboration with Lilly, which retains the option to exclusively license the candidate for future development and commercialisation.
Under the terms of the original licensing and research collaboration agreement, Sitryx received an upfront payment of $50m and Lilly made a $10m equity investment in the company.
Neil Weir, chief executive officer of Sitryx, said the company was “delighted” that Lilly has chosen to advance SIT-011 within its pipeline.
He continued: “We believe in the potential of Sitryx’s immunometabolism-targeting therapies to change the treatment paradigm for patients with chronic autoimmune and inflammatory diseases.”
The announcement comes just under a month after Lilly entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Point Biopharma for $1.4bn, giving the company access to a pipeline of clinical and preclinical-stage radioligand therapies being developed to treat cancer.
Lilly also acquired Versanis earlier this year for over $1.9bn, marking a significant boost to its cardiometabolic disease pipeline.