Life sciences companies large and small are pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into genetic medicine research, and Eli Lilly and its Lilly Institute for Genetic Medicine have joined the movement, a new site launched in Boston’s bustling Seaport district and receiving span $700 million investment.
The Indianapolis-based pharmaceutical giant said Tuesday that the new institute is part of a broader strategy to develop new genetic medicines.The site also builds on last year’s $880 million Acquired Prevail Therapeutics, a New York-based clinical-stage biotechnology company whose lead program is gene therapy for Parkinson’s disease. Lilly said researchers at both sites will work together to develop new treatments using RNA- and DNA-based technologies.
“Establishing the Lilly Institute for Genetic Medicine will allow us to combine cutting-edge technology with our deep biological expertise in areas as diverse as neuroscience and diabetes,” said Andrew Adams, Lilly Vice President of Genetic Medicine and Institute Co-Director Said in a prepared statement. “Lilly will focus on drugs that act at the nucleic acid level to advance a whole new class of drugs that target the underlying causes of disease, an approach fundamentally different from the drugs available today.”
According to Eli Lilly, genetic medicines currently account for more than 20 percent of its drug research in diabetes, immunology and central nervous system diseases. In addition to internal research, Lilly has invested heavily in the Genetic Medicine Research Consortium.Lily has one Partnering with Precision Biosciences, a clinical-stage company developing genetic medicines based on its ARCUS gene editing technology. The consortium, which began in 2020, is focused on developing in vivo gene-editing therapies, starting with Duchenne muscular dystrophy.
last July, Eli Lilly commits $25 million to Verge Genomics alliance Focus on the discovery and development of new drugs for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. The Verge uses artificial intelligence to study genetic mutations that cause disease.Eli Lilly and Company subsequently $15 million equity investment in MiNA Therapeutics, a biotech company developing small activating RNA therapeutics. end of last year, Eli Lilly commits $380M to R&D alliance with Foghorn Therapeuticsa biotechnology that develops drugs that target cellular systems that turn genes on and off.
Eli Lilly expects its new Boston site to grow from 120 scientists to more than 250 within five years. Meanwhile, the New York site is expected to grow to as many as 200 scientists. The new institute will be housed in a 334,000-square-foot building in a 12-story building operated by Alexandria Real Estate Equities. Eli Lilly said it expects to occupy the new Boston facility in 2024. When it opened,
The institute will also provide space for biotech start-ups. Amenities will include configurable lab and office space, access to Eli Lilly scientists and opportunities to partner with the pharmaceutical giant, Eli Lilly said. Seaport’s startup space is modeled after South San Francisco’s Lilly Gateway Labs, a co-working space for startups Open end of 2019. Lilly said it expects to create as many as 150 new jobs at Seaport’s planned start-up space once the space is fully occupied.
Eli Lilly is the latest pharmaceutical giant to announce a major investment in genetic medicine research. last summer, Sanofi announces plans for mRNA Center of Excellence, a 400-employee research division with offices in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Lyon, France. Sanofi will provide approximately EUR 400 million in annual funding for the new mRNA center.
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