METiS, Lilly sign LNP delivery pact worth up to $1.1b

Hong Kong-listed AI-driven drug delivery innovation company METiS TechBio has signed a strategic collaboration agreement with US firm Eli Lilly and Company, to focus on the research and discovery of novel lipid nanoparticle (LNP)-based delivery solutions designed to enable tissue-specific delivery of therapeutic modalities.

According to publicly available data, the deal is China's first strategic partnership built around a generative AI-driven LNP delivery platform. It is also the world's largest disclosed collaboration focused on extrahepatic LNP delivery powered by AI, measured by deal value.

Under the terms of the agreement, METiS will receive an upfront payment in the low double-digit millions of US dollars and will be eligible for up to approximately $1.1 billion in development, regulatory and commercial milestone payments, plus single-digit tiered royalties on annual net sales of resulting products. Lilly will contribute its expertise in drug discovery, development and commercialization to support the advancement of the collaboration.

LNP technology has emerged as a powerful modality for delivering therapeutic payloads to target tissues and cells. But conventional LNP lipid structure discovery has traditionally relied on empirical design and extensive experimental screening, resulting in lengthy timelines and a limited explorable design space.

Under the collaboration, METiS will leverage its proprietary, NanoForge-driven ionizable lipid discovery and optimization platform, AiLNP, to develop next-generation delivery technologies with the potential to improve targeting and biodistribution of LNP-based delivery.

"Delivery remains a critical determinant of therapeutic success, particularly as the industry expands into increasingly sophisticated modalities," said Chris Lai, chairman and CEO of METiS. "By combining METiS' AI-powered platform with Lilly's scientific expertise and development capabilities, we aim to unlock a new generation of tissue- and cell-targeted delivery technologies that have the potential to transform how medicines reach patients."

The collaboration marks a shift from organ-level targeting toward tissue- and cell-selective delivery. For innovative drug R&D, the advance could enable next-generation modalities — including nucleic acid medicines, gene editing, mRNA therapies and in vivo cell therapies — to overcome limitations imposed by insufficient delivery selectivity.

Dong Yuan contributed to the story.