Eli Lilly Strikes $1.1 Billion Deal With Seamless Therapeutics To Develop Gene Therapies For Hearing Loss

• Seamless will receive over $1.1 billion, which also includes potential milestone payments for achieving development and commercial milestones.
• However, this excludes royalties on successfully marketed drugs, the company said.
• In exchange, Lilly will receive an exclusive license to the programmed enzymes to advance through preclinical and clinical drug development and commercialization.

Eli Lilly & Co. (LLY) on Wednesday struck a $1.1 billion deal with Seamless Therapeutics for gene therapy solutions to treat hearing loss.

The global research collaboration between the two companies will see Seamless bringing its expertise in developing precise and efficient enzymes, with Lilly’s development expertise in genetic hearing disorders.

What Will Eli Lilly Receive?

Under the terms of the deal between Seamless Therapeutics and Eli Lilly, Seamless will design and program site-specific enzymes to correct mutations in certain genes related to hearing loss.

Seamless will receive over $1.1 billion, which also includes potential milestone payments for achieving development and commercial milestones. However, this excludes royalties on successfully marketed drugs, the company said.

In exchange, Lilly will receive an exclusive license to the programmed enzymes to advance through preclinical and clinical drug development and commercialization.

What Does Seamless Do?

Seamless is a Germany-based company engaged in gene editing to correct the genetic causes of disease.

“Our technology seamlessly performs large, precise DNA deletions or insertions anywhere in the genome without introducing additional mutations,” the company says on its website.

How Stocktwits Users Reacted

Eli Lilly’s shares were down nearly 1% in Wednesday’s pre-market trade. Retail sentiment on Stocktwits around the company was in the ‘bearish’ territory at the time of writing.

One user thinks the LLY stock will continue to drop until its fourth-quarter results are announced, which is scheduled for February 4.

LLY stock is down 3% year-to-date, but up 29% over the past 12 months.

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