Eli Lilly partners with AI-focused Genetic Leap to develop RNA-based drugs

(Reuters) -U.S. drugmaker Eli Lilly has signed a research deal with privately held AI-focused firm Genetic Leap to develop genetic medicines, the latter said on Thursday.

WHY IT'S IMPORTANT

Major drugmakers have been experimenting with artificial intelligence to discover new drugs, find patients for clinical trials and reduce the number of people needed to test medicines.

Lilly signed a partnership with AI startup OpenAI in Juneto develop antimicrobials that can be used to treat drug-resistant bacteria.

French drugmaker Sanofi also said in May it would collaborate with OpenAI to develop AI models for its drug development projects.

CONTEXT

The deal would give Lilly access to Genetic Leap's proprietary AI platform to develop RNA-based medicines.

Genetic medicines, which target the genetic cause of a disease, make up more than 25% of drug candidates being developed at Lilly, the drugmaker's website showed.

Dozens of biotechnology companies are looking for ways to manipulate RNA, a genetic messenger, to block genes that produce disease-causing proteins.

BY THE NUMBERS

As part of the deal, Genetic Leap would receive upfront and milestone payments of up to $409 million, as well as tiered royalties.

(Reporting by Mariam Sunny in Bengaluru; Editing by Shreya Biswas)