Global Briefs: Lilly, Alcon, Astellas & More
A roundup of news from the large and mid-sized bio/pharmaceutical companies featuring Eli Lilly and Company, Alcon, Astellas, AstraZeneca, Sanofi and Merck & Co. Highlights below.
For the latest news roundup on small and Emerging Pharma companies, see Biotech Briefs.
M&A News
* Alcon Acquires Neurotech Pharmaceuticals for $550 M
Partnering News
* Lilly, Metis TechBio in $1.1-Bn LNP Discovery, Research Pact
* Astellas, AI Proteins in $400-M Pact To Develop Miniprotein Therapeutics
* AstraZeneca, Oracle Form AI Pact To Optimize Clinical Trials
* Sanofi, ScionxBio Form Pact to Develop Long-Acting xRNA Therapeutics
General
* Merck & Co. Inaugurates Bioanalytical Facility in Pennsylvania
M&A News
Alcon Acquires Neurotech Pharmaceuticals for $550 M
Alcon has acquired Neurotech Pharmaceuticals, a Cumberland, Rhode Island-based bio/pharmaceutical company focused on cell therapies for eye diseases, for $550 million.
The acquisition expands Alcon’s retina portfolio with Encelto (revakinagene taroretcel-lwey), a FDA-approved treatment for adults with idiopathic macular telangiectasia type 2, a rare, progressive retinal disease that leads to irreversible central vision loss. Encelto is an encapsulated cell therapy that is intended for surgical intravitreal implantation. FDA granted Encelto priority review status and orphan drug designation and approved it under a biologics license application in March 2025. It currently is available in the US only.
Alcon paid $550 million to acquire Neurotech Pharmaceuticals but may be required to make additional contingent payments, including upon the achievement of commercial milestones.
Source: Alcon
Partnering News
Lilly, Metis TechBio in $1.1-Bn LNP Discovery, Research Pact
Eli Lilly and Company and Metis TechBio, a Hong Kong-based bio/pharmaceutical company with proprietary drug-delivery platforms, have formed a strategic collaboration focused on the research and discovery of lipid nanoparticle (LNP)-based delivery to enable tissue-specific delivery of therapeutic modalities, in a deal worth up to $1.1 billion.
Under the agreement, Metis will use its proprietary, AI-enabled ionizable lipid discovery and optimization platform, AiLNP, to develop delivery technologies with the potential to improve targeting and biodistribution of LNP-based delivery. Lilly will contribute its expertise in drug discovery, development, and commercialization to support the advancement of the collaboration.
Under the agreement, Metis is eligible to receive an upfront payment in the low double-digit millions and up to approximately $1.1 billion in development, regulatory, and commercial milestone payments. In addition, Metis TechBio will be eligible to receive single-digit tiered royalties based on annual net sales of products resulting from the collaboration.
Source: Metis TechBio
Astellas, AI Proteins in $400-M Pact To Develop Miniprotein Therapeutics
Astellas and AI Proteins, a Boston-based clinical-stage bio/pharmaceutical company developing therapeutic miniproteins, have entered into an agreement to discover and develop miniprotein-based therapeutics, in a deal worth up to $400 million.
Under the agreement, AI Proteins will apply its proprietary AI-enabled discovery platform to design and optimize de novo miniproteins against multiple targets. These computationally designed miniproteins combine specific binding activity with specific property engineering to develop proteins beyond nature-derived biologics, according to information from AI Proteins. Astellas will hold an exclusive worldwide license to therapeutic candidates that emerge from the collaboration and will be responsible for advancing them through subsequent development, regulatory, and commercialization activities.
Under the agreement, AI Proteins will receive an upfront cash payment to design and optimize miniproteins against targets selected by Astellas. Once candidates are ready to advance, Astellas will assume responsibility for their development, regulatory approval, and commercialization. AI Proteins is eligible to receive over $400 million in upfront and milestone payments, plus royalties on net sales of any resulting products.
Source: AI Proteins
AstraZeneca, Oracle Form AI Pact To Optimize Clinical Trials
AstraZeneca and Oracle have entered an agreement to apply AstraZeneca’s scientific, clinical development, and regulatory expertise with Oracle’s real-world data, cloud infrastructure, and AI-enabled clinical capabilities to accelerate clinical research and accelerate clinical trial optimization.
Through a non-binding agreement, the companies plan to explore selected use cases that could improve clinical-trial efficiency and success by applying modern applications and AI to facilitate care teams with patient recruitment by identifying eligible patients for clinical trials. Initial disease areas to be explored could include the following: oncology; cardiovascular, renal and metabolic diseases; respiratory and immunology; and rare diseases.
The collaboration will span multiple international projects including in the US, the Middle East, and the European Union. The first program will focus on supporting hypertension care and clinical research in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, in partnership with the healthcare company, M42.
AstraZeneca and Oracle intend to explore a continuous learning model in which insights from clinical research and routine care help inform future study design, safety monitoring, and patient care. The companies plan to establish shared governance, reusable technical components, and agreed outcome measures to assess results and determine whether successful approaches could extend across disease areas and geographies.
Source: Oracle and AstraZeneca
Sanofi, ScionxBio Form Pact to Develop Long-Acting xRNA Therapeutics
Sanofi and Cambridge, UK-based ScionxBio (formerly Eleven Therapeutics), a preclinical-stage bio/pharmaceutical company focused on mRNA therapeutics, have entered an agreement to develop and commercialize extended-exposure versions of certain Sanofi mRNA candidates by using ScionxBio’s proprietary TERA platform for engineering xRNA molecules.
The TERA platform deciphers structure-activity relationships (SAR) within high-throughput combinatorial screens to engineer molecules that provide greater stability and resistance to enzymatic degradation compared to traditional mRNA, according to ScionxBio.
While undisclosed, the disease areas covered by the collaboration address conditions where sustained protein expression is essential for clinical effects. ScionxBio will lead optimization activities up to in vivo validation stages. Sanofi will then assume responsibility for all remaining preclinical development activities, investigational new drug (IND)-enabling studies, clinical development, manufacturing, and worldwide commercialization.
Source: ScionxBio
General
Merck & Co. Inaugurates Bioanalytical Research Facility in Pennsylvania
Merck & Co. has inaugurated a new bioanalytical research facility on its West Point, Pennsylvania, campus. The facility, referred to as the Advance Bioanalytical Facility, integrates robotic systems and digital AI capabilities and is designed to streamline the analysis of biological samples from Merck’s ongoing clinical development programs while supporting the company’s pipeline.
As part of the company’s previously announced $70-billion commitment to domestic manufacturing and R&D in the US, Merck is investing approximately $550 million in its Advance research facility at West Point and in facilities in the nearby Spring House Innovation Park.
Source: Merck & Co.
