Nimbus Therapeutics Announces Research Collaboration and License Agreement with Lilly for Small Molecule Activators of AMPK

Nimbus Therapeutics, a clinical-stage company that is working to design and develop breakthrough medicines through its powerful computational drug discovery engine, announced it has entered into a research collaboration and exclusive, worldwide license agreement with Eli Lilly and Company (Lilly) for the development and commercialization of novel targeted therapies that activate a specific isoform of AMPK for the treatment of metabolic diseases.

Leveraging Nimbus’s computational drug discovery engine and expertise in structure-based drug design, Nimbus is uniquely positioned to develop isoform-selective small molecule activators of AMPK with potential therapeutic application to a broad range of metabolic disorders.

“AMPK is a high-value target for the treatment of metabolic diseases, and drug developers have faced challenges for many years in identifying isoform-selective AMPK activators for tissue-specific therapeutic interventions. Nimbus has established a successful track record in developing and progressing highly-selective small molecules to the clinic against hard-to-interrogate targets, which is a demonstration of the power of our computational and structural approach to drug discovery,” said Peter Tummino, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer at Nimbus. “We are excited to partner with Lilly and benefit from their deep expertise in metabolic diseases, including diabetes, obesity and related disorders.”

“We look forward to collaborating with this innovative team at Nimbus, which has an established record of developing highly-specific small molecule modulators against important therapeutic targets,” said Ruth Gimeno, Ph.D., Lilly’s Senior Vice President, Diabetes Research and Clinical Investigation. “Developing therapies together that target AMPK helps address a critical need and is part of Lilly’s ongoing efforts to expand treatment options available to patients with metabolic disorders.”

Under the collaboration, Nimbus will be responsible for research activities, and Lilly will be responsible for development and commercialization activities worldwide. Financial consideration for Nimbus includes a series of payments, funding and milestones spread through research, development and commercialization, potentially reaching up to $496 million in total. Nimbus is eligible to receive tiered royalties on global net sales ranging from mid single- to low double-digits.