Alchemab Therapeutics signs $415m licensing deal with Eli Lilly

Alchemab Therapeutics has entered into a licensing agreement with Eli Lilly and Company (Lilly) for ATLX-1282, Alchemab’s first-in-class IND-ready programme for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and other neurodegenerative conditions.

The landmark agreement, worth up to a total of $415m, includes an undisclosed upfront payment, potential discovery, development, and commercialisation payments and royalties.

Founded in 2019, Alchemy is a next-generation biopharmaceutical company which uses the power of human immune evolution to identify and develop naturally occurring therapeutic antibodies from resilient individuals.

The company that year received seed funding from SV Health Investors, DCVC Bio and the Dementia Discovery Fund. A Series A fundraise in 2021 raised $80m from a blue-chip syndicate of specialist investors which also included RA Capital, Lightstone Ventures and Camford Capital. The company is headquartered in London with labs in Lion Works, Whittlesford.

Its unique platform uses machine learning and AI to analyse the complexities of the human immune response and identify antibodies that are uniquely associated with resilience to untreatable diseases.

This is achieved using more than 6,000 carefully selected and highly curated patient samples across neurodegeneration, immunology, oncology and healthy aging. Weaving lab-based protein science and biology with machine learning, human samples and proprietary data analysis, and leveraging Nvidia’s supercomputer in Harlow, Alchemab has sequenced and analysed millions of antibody sequences to unveil novel targets and antibodies with unique mechanisms of action.

Through its research, Alchemab has identified an antibody in people with mutations that normally lead to frontotemporal dementia, but who remain well into old age. Starting from the antibody sequence, Alchemab was able to identify the target and has subsequently demonstrated its importance in neuroprotection, and across multiple neurodegenerative conditions including ALS and FTD.

Alchemab’s CEO, Jane Osbourn, said: “As the first programme from our highly novel platform, this is a landmark transaction for Alchemab.

“With Lilly’s deep expertise in neurological conditions, they are ideally placed to speedily advance ATLX-1282 through the clinic, and maximise the potential to help patients. We believe this innovative programme has enormous promise and look forward to working with Lilly to bring this to fruition.

“Today’s announcement is also a tremendous endorsement for Alchemab’s unique approach to drug discovery. Our revolutionary computational and wet lab-based workflow has enabled us to sift through millions of antibodies to identify this target.

“We think this is a powerful story demonstrating both the discovery of a novel antibody to treat neurogenerative diseases and the development of a unique platform which has great potential to provide innovative treatments across many disease settings.

“The transaction will support our work to progress our pipeline, which includes metabolic, immunology and oncology programmes, towards the clinic and we look forward to unveiling highly differentiated assets in these areas in due course.”

This signing builds on a separate discovery collaboration agreement with Lilly announced in January 2025 to discover, develop and commercialise up to five novel therapeutic candidates for ALS.