Metis Pharmaceuticals Co., Ltd.

Today, a brief rundown of news involving Arcus Biosciences and Eli Lilly, as well as updates from TriGemX Bio and AstraZeneca that you may have missed.Shares of Arcus Biosciences climbed 8% Tuesday on updated results that bolstered investor and analyst confidence in the company's experimental kidney cancer drug. Arcus' experimental therapy casdatifan is currently in late-stage testing and works similarly to Merck & Co.'s marketed kidney cancer drug Welireg. At an R&D day, the company presented follow-up results from earlier-line tests in multiple settings that, combined, suggested casdatifan provides a step-up in potency compared to Welireg, wrote Leerink Partners analyst David Risinger. To Mizuho Securities' Salim Syed, the findings on tumor progression and survival indicated investors should ascribe potential value to casdatifan in the first-line setting. The drug has the chance to be an “all-line backbone therapy“ in clear cell renal cell carcinoma, the most common form of kidney cancer, Syed claimed.Eli Lilly is teaming up with Hong Kong-based drugmaker METiS TechBio in a research deal centered around drug delivery tools known as lipid nanoparticles.Lipid nanoparticles microscopic, fatty shells are commonly used in RNA-based therapies and other forms of genetic medicine.Through the collaboration, METiS will use AI to help Lilly come up with new lipid nanoparticles capable of tissue-specific delivery, the companies said. Lilly could pay METiS up to $1.1 billion in the deal, though the companies didnt say how much of that cash is guaranteed.TriGemX Bio will go public by merging with a blank-check company created by life sciences investment firm TCGX. The SPAC deal announced Monday will equip TriGemX with $246 million in cash, consisting of the $86 million in the acquisition vehicles reserves and a $160 million investment from a handful of prominent firms. TriGemX initially formed as Kallyope to target the gut-brain axis, a communication channel between cells in the central nervous system and gastrointestinal tract. Its since rebranded, sold off obesity drug programsand now has a therapy called elismetrep in late-stage testing for acute migraines.AstraZeneca and Oracle Health and Life Sciences are working together in an AI-focused partnership aimed at optimizing clinical trials. Through the partnership, the two companies will test practical ways to connect drug research to health care, they said in a Tuesday announcement. Their first test will involve supporting research in Abu Dhabi, where the partners hope to help experts better identify patients with uncontrolled hypertension and improve recruitment in clinical trials. Neither company disclosed financial terms. '

iStock, Afry Harvy METiS TechBio’s AiLNP platform uses machine learning models to develop lipid nanoparticles with potentially better tissue specificity that could enhance a drug’s therapeutic performance. Eli Lilly is tapping Hong Kong–listed METiS TechBio to develop lipid nanoparticle-based drug delivery technology that could allow tissue-specific targeting of certain therapeutic modalities. Lilly has pledged an upfront commitment “in the low double-digit millions of U.S. dollars,” METiS disclosed in a Monday release . The biotech is also eligible for up to $1.1 billion in development, regulatory and commercial milestones, plus single-digit tiered royalties on net sales of products that arise from the alliance. The Indianapolis pharma will leverage METiS’ AiLNP platform, which uses AI to discover and optimize ionizable lipids that can be used to produce lipid nanoparticles (LNP) for delivering drugs. The partners didn’t specify which of Lilly’s drugs they plan to package into these lipid spheres or what diseases they want to work on. BioSpace has reached out to the companies for more details regarding the deal. LNPs have become a popular method of delivering treatments, especially nucleic acid–based therapies, because they can protect these molecules from destruction and degradation. Several FDA-approved medicines use LNPs, including Alnylam’s RNAi transthyretin amyloidosis therapy Onpattro and Pfizer and BioNTech’s mRNA COVID-19 vaccine Comirnaty . Through the METiS deal, Lilly is looking to develop novel LNPs “that may enable improved tissue specificity, enhanced therapeutic performance, and broader applicability across multiple disease areas,” according to the Monday announcement. METiS launched in December 2017 with $86 million in series A capital. Aside from Lilly, the biotech has signed deals with other drugmakers, including China’s Hengrui Pharma in August and Deerfield Management’s Boulevard Bio in June. The METiS agreement continues what has been a prolific year of dealmaking for Lilly, including up to $870 million pledged earlier this month to expand a partnership with Gate Bioscience to advance therapies against difficult-to-target proteins for conditions with high unmet need. Other recent Lilly deals include an up to $3.25 billion contract with China’s InnoCare Pharma, covering five targets for undisclosed indications, and the up to $2.88 billion acquisition of Merida Biosciences for a pipeline of autoimmune and allergic disease therapies. Mergers & acquisitions M&A slows in Q3 but Vertex snags one of the year’s biggest in $10B Crinetics buy After a frantic second quarter, M&A steadied with just under $30 billion across 22 total transactions, according to a BioSpace analysis. October 1, 2026 · 1 min read Read more

Eli Lilly is partnering with METiS TechBio to develop lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) that could deliver medicines more precisely to specific tissues. Monday's deal could net METiS up to over $1 billion in milestone payments.METiS will use its AiLNP platform, which combines generative and predictive AI to discover and optimise ionisable lipids, a key component of LNPs used to transport therapeutic material into cells. Meanwhile, Lilly will contribute its drug discovery and development expertise as the partners investigate how new lipid formulations could improve biodistribution of LNP-based delivery."Delivery remains a critical determinant of therapeutic success, particularly as the industry expands into increasingly sophisticated modalities," said METiS CEO Chris Lai.Under the agreed terms, METiS is eligible for an upfront payment in the "low double-digit millions" of dollars, and up to approximately $1.1 billion tied to development, regulatory and commercial milestones. The company could also receive single-digit tiered royalties on annual net sales of any resulting products.The companies have not identified specific tissue targets or disease areas, provided experimental results demonstrating improved delivery, or disclosed a development timeline.Lilly has made other sizable investments in AI-driven drug discovery this year. In March, it signed a licensing and research agreement with Insilico Medicine valued at up to $2.75 billion, including work with the biotech's Pharma.AI platform. Two months earlier, Lilly and Nvidia announced plans to jointly invest up to $1 billion in an AI lab focused on discovering new medicines.