Insilico Medicine, a clinical-stage company specialising in generative artificial-intelligence-driven drug discovery, announced that it has entered a new research and licensing collaboration with Eli Lilly and Company. According to the agreement, Insilico’s Pharma.AI platform will be used to generate, design and optimise candidate compounds for targets defined by Lilly. Insilico is eligible for over US $100 million in payments covering an upfront payment, research/development milestones and tiered royalty payments on net sales of any resulting commercialised drug products.

The collaboration deepens an already existing relationship: Lilly had previously licensed access to Insilico’s AI-software suite in 2023. With this new deal, they move from being a customer into a true R&D partner. Insilico reports that its platform has nominated 20+ preclinical candidates since 2021, achieving an average time to preclinical candidate nomination of just 12-18 months (versus the typical multi-year timeline).

The move signals major confidence in AI’s potential to transform early-stage drug R&D — condensing discovery timelines, reducing molecule synthesis/tests needed, and accelerating the pipeline. According to Alex Zhavoronkov, Founder & Co-CEO of Insilico:

“Lilly has been a valued user of our Pharma.AI software suite… By joining forces we are accelerating the development of transformative therapies to address urgent patient needs worldwide.”

Both companies say details of target areas are not yet disclosed. The agreement may set precedent in the industry for larger drug-discovery collaborations centred on AI.