Evox Therapeutics Announces a Multi-target RNAi and Antisense Research Collaboration and License Agreement With Lilly

Evox Therapeutics Ltd announced a research collaboration and license agreement with Eli Lilly and Company to leverage Evox’s proprietary DeliverEX platform to develop and deliver RNA interference (RNAi) & antisense oligonucleotide (ASO) drug payloads for the potential treatment of neurological disorders. During this research collaboration and five-target license agreement, Evox will be responsible for exosome engineering in order to achieve brain/CNS-targeting, drug loading and analytics and some in vitro assay development, as well as material supply for initial in vivo studies. Any resulting candidate handover and technology transfer to Lilly will occur after pre-clinical proof of concept studies have been completed.

Under the terms of the agreement, Evox will receive a $20 million cash up-front payment, research funding over three years, as well as a $10 million investment from Lilly in exchange for a convertible bond from the Company. Evox will also be eligible for potential pre-clinical and clinical development, regulatory and commercial milestones of up to approximately $1.2 billion, as well as tiered royalties up to low double digits on net sales of products arising from the collaboration.

Dr Antonin de Fougerolles, Chief Executive Officer of Evox, commented: “This agreement with Lilly allows us to explore both the potential of our platform to deliver oligonucleotide payloads, a class of drugs of increasing importance, and the suitability of our exosome technology for CNS targeting. This new deal with another major pharmaceutical company highlights the breadth of opportunity that exists with exosome-based drugs.”

“We are pleased to enter into this pre-clinical research and licensing collaboration with Evox, and look forward to studying the potential for their technology to support the development of future medicines for neurological disorders,” said Michael Hutton, Ph.D., Vice President of neurodegeneration research at Lilly.