– New agreement with Lilly to license ATLX-1282, a first-in-class IND-ready programme for neurodegenerative conditions targeting a novel receptor and mechanism
– Deal worth up to $415m including upfront and downstream, plus royalties on top
– ATLX-1282 is the first programme out of Alchemab’s entirely novel platform which generates and analyses millions of antibody sequences from resilient individuals
– Builds on existing discovery collaboration agreement with Lilly announced in January 2025 to discover, develop and commercialise up to five novel therapeutic candidates for ALS
CAMBRIDGE, England, May 6, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — Alchemab Therapeutics (Alchemab), the next generation biopharmaceutical company which uses the power of human immune evolution to identify and develop naturally occurring therapeutic antibodies from resilient individuals, today announces that it 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 transaction is worth up to a total of $415m, including an undisclosed upfront payment, potential discovery, development, and commercialisation payments and royalties. Under the terms of the agreement, Alchemab will be taking the programme through early Phase 1 clinical trials after which Lilly will lead all further development and commercialisation.
Alchemab’s unique platform uses state-of-the-art 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 over 6,000 carefully selected and highly curated patient samples across neurodegeneration, immunology, oncology and healthy aging. Weaving together lab-based protein science and biology with machine learning, human samples and proprietary data analysis, and leveraging Nvidia’s supercomputer in Cambridge, 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 (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’s Chief Executive Officer, Jane Osbourn, commented: “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 transaction 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.
About Alchemab
Alchemab studies the natural antibody responses of individuals who are highly resilient to disease and identifies antibodies uniquely shared in the resilient groups and not seen in disease progressors. The targets to these antibodies are then identified and the antibodies developed into therapies for hard-to-treat diseases which do not have disease modifying approaches. Alchemab’s platform integrates data mining and machine learning models of patient-derived immune responses with in vitro and in vivo drug discovery approaches to understand what keeps people well. The goal is to unlock nature’s immunological response to disease and harness our highly evolved human immune system to find breakthrough drugs.
Alchemab was founded in 2019 with seed funding from SV Health Investors, DCVC Bio and the Dementia Discovery Fund and has raised in excess of $80 million to date from a blue-chip syndicate of specialist investors which also includes RA Capital, Lightstone Ventures and Camford Capital. The company is headquartered in London, UK with labs in Cambridge, UK.
In January 2025, Alchemab announced an agreement with Eli Lilly and Company. Under the terms of the agreement, Alchemab will collaborate with Lilly to discover, develop and commercialise up to five novel therapeutic candidates for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Alchemab received an undisclosed upfront payment and is eligible to receive discovery, development and commercialisation milestone payments, plus royalties.
About amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS)
ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, is a rare and terminal neurodegenerative disease for which there is no known cure. Early symptoms of ALS include stiff muscles, muscle twitches, gradual increasing weakness, and muscle wasting that results in the progressive loss of motor neurons that control voluntary muscles, leading to difficulties in speaking, swallowing, walking, and breathing. The average survival from onset to death is two to four years, though this can vary, and about 10% of those affected survive longer than ten years[1].
For more information, visit www.alchemab.com/
[1] Long‐term survival in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: A population‐based study – Pupillo – 2014 – Annals of Neurology – Wiley Online Library
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