Eli Lilly reaches deal to bring AI-developed drugs to global market
A drone view shows the Eli Lilly logo on the company’s office in San Diego, California, November 21, 2025.
Mike Blake | Reuters
BEIJING – US pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly has struck a $2.75 billion deal to bring drugs developed using artificial intelligence by Hong Kong-based Insilico Medicine to the global market.
According to the companies’ announcement on Monday, the deal will see Insilico receive $115 million upfront, with the remainder subject to regulatory and commercial milestones as well as royalties on future sales.
Insilico has developed at least 28 drugs using generative AI tools, almost half of which are already in the clinical stage, Insilico founder and CEO Alex Zhavoronkov told CNBC. The company went public in Hong Kong in December. Its shares are up more than 50% since the start of the year.
“In many ways, Lilly is better than us in some areas of AI,” Zhavoronkov said, pointing out that the US pharmaceutical giant has “a person” who has combined biology, chemistry and automation. He added that as part of the deal, Insilico will join Lilly’s Gateway Labs community for biotech development.
The two companies have been working together since signing a licensing agreement for AI-based software in 2023.
“This collaboration allows us to explore new mechanisms and accelerate the identification of promising therapeutics.” C“Andidates across multiple disease areas,” Andrew Adams, group vice president of Molecule Discovery at Lilly, said in a statement. He called Insilico’s AI-powered discovery “a powerful addition” to Lilly’s clinical development.
Eli Lilly CEO David A. Ricks attended a high-level forum in Beijing earlier this month, just weeks after the company announced plans to invest $3 billion in China over the next decade. The company reported that a little less than 3% of its sales came from China last year.
Weekly analysis and insights from Asia’s largest economy in your inbox
Subscribe now
Insilico develops its AI outside of China, in Canada and the Middle East, but conducts early preclinical drug development in China based on that AI research, Zhavoronkov said. He said that in addition to reducing research time, AI can synthesize molecules faster than those discovered using more traditional methods.
Choose CNBC as your preferred source on Google and never miss a moment from the most trusted name in business news.
