Eli Lilly is continuing a run of dealmaking to strengthen its genetic medicine offering by penning a pact with gene editing company Seamless Therapeutics.
This morning’s deal with Seamless centers on using the German biotech’s recombinase platform to create treatments for hearing loss. Seamless is tasked with designing and programming site-specific recombinases to correct specific gene mutations, with Lilly securing an exclusive license to advance the resulting therapies through preclinical development and beyond.
In return, Seamless is in line for up to a total of $1.12 billion in a combination of upfront payment, R&D funding, development and commercial milestones. The companies didn’t offer a detailed breakdown of the financials.
Dresden, Germany-based Seamless launched in 2023 (PDF) with the aim of using its gene editing platform to tackle a range of severe diseases. The platform allows for the site-specific programming of recombinases—the enzymes used in gene editing—in order to insert or exchange DNA fragments in gene sequences.
Seamless CEO Albert Seymour, Ph.D., said the deal with Lilly was a “validation” of the biotech’s platform and its “broad disease-modifying potential.”
“We look forward to working with our partners at Lilly in our shared goal to transform the outcome for patients with genetic hearing loss,” Seymour added. “It’s an exciting opportunity to apply our technology to bring treatments to patients with hearing loss and continue to expand the therapeutic potential for programmable recombinases through our proprietary pipeline.”
The pact with Seamless is just the latest in a string of deals Lilly has been signing over the past year to strengthen its genetic medicines portfolio. This has included spending $1.3 billion to buy its gene editing partner Verve Therapeutics, penning a pact to use Sangamo Therapeutics’ neurotropic AAV capsid to develop a gene therapy for a central nervous system disease, signing a $475 million deal for MeiraGTx’s eye disease gene therapy and buying another eye disease gene therapy developer outright.
When it comes to hearing loss, Lilly already has one genetic medicine in the works in the form of AK-OTOF. Two years ago, the dual adeno-associated viral-vector-based gene therapy was shown to restore hearing in one child who has experienced hearing loss since birth.
Currently, there are no approved pharmacologic treatments designed to restore hearing.