The biopharma company has signed a £312 million deal for its work into antibodies for neurodegenerative conditions. 

Cambridge-based immunotherapy-focused biopharma company Alchemab Therapeutics has signed a licensing agreement with Eli Lilly for ATLX-1282, Alchemab’s first-in-class IND-ready programme for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and other neurodegenerative conditions.

The transaction is worth up to £312 million. This includes an undisclosed upfront payment, potential discovery, development, and commercialisation payments and royalties. 

Under the terms of the agreement, Alchemab will take the programme through early Phase 1 clinical trials after which Lilly will lead all further development and commercialisation.

“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,” said Alchemab’s chief executive Jane Osbourn. 

Resilience to untreatable diseases

Alchemab’s platform uses machine learning and AI to identify antibodies that are associated with resilience to untreatable diseases. This is achieved using more than 6,000 patient samples across neurodegeneration, immunology, oncology and healthy ageing. 

Through its research, Alchemab has identified an antibody in people with mutations that normally lead to frontotemporal dementia (FTD), but who remain well into old age. These samples were sourced from a collaboration with the Genetic Frontotemporal Initiative (GENFI) consortium, which has built the largest global cohort of FTD patients.

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 was founded in 2019 with seed funding from SV Health Investors, DCVC Bio and the Dementia Discovery Fund and has raised more than £60 million from a syndicate of investors which also includes RA Capital, Lightstone Ventures and Camford Capital. 

The company is headquartered in London, UK with labs in Cambridge.