$1 Billion Bet! Eli Lilly Partners with Haya Therapeutics, Betting on Mysterious RNA Weight-Loss Wonder Drug

In the global pharmaceutical field, Eli Lilly and company, as the industry leader, recently joined forces with Swiss biotechnology company Haya Therapeutics to develop a new weight loss drug that targets specific RNA types. Thanks to the market success of its two weight-loss drugs, Mounjaro and zepbound, Lilly's market value has steadily climbed to about $855 billion. For the partnership, which seeks to develop new drug targets for chronic metabolic diseases and obesity, Lilly will make an undisclosed upfront payment to Haya, including an equity investment. Potential milestone payments and royalties from the deal are expected to total up to $1 billion.

Since its founding in 2017, Haya Therapeutics has focused on developing long non-coding Rnas (lncrnas) as innovative targets for the treatment of disease. Although these RNA molecules do not encode proteins, they play key interactions and regulatory roles in biological processes and constitute an important part of the regulatory genome. To date, Haya has initiated development of drug candidates targeting lncrnas for diseases including fibrotic cardiopulmonary disease and cancer. The partnership with Lilly will open a new chapter for Haya to enter the increasingly competitive weight loss drug market.

Samir Ounzain, CEO of Haya Therapeutics, said: "People are starting to look at major disease signs. In the areas of cardiometabolic and obesity, we are already clearly feeling this trend, as well as observing a shift in the strategic priorities of big Pharma companies. We firmly believe that through the power of our platform, it can be applied to any cell state and tissue. So, in the long term, finding the right partner is the best way to demonstrate the potential of regulating the genome."

The partnership between Lilly and Haya is the second major lncRNA collaboration between a major pharmaceutical company in two weeks. Previously, Bayer had agreed to pay up to $547 million to NextRNA Therapeutics to develop small molecule drugs targeting lncrnas to treat unspecified cancer types.

The collaboration between Eli Lilly and Haya Therapeutics will not only promote the development of new weight loss drugs, but also further strengthen Lilly's leading position in the global pharmaceutical industry and make new contributions to human health.