Pharma, BioPharma

Eli Lilly commits $700M to its new genetic medicine institute in Boston Seaport

The Lilly Institute for Genetic Medicine is a new facility in Boston that will focus on the R&D of RNA and DNA-based therapies. Eli Lilly is investing about $700 million to establish the site, which will also include lab and office space for biotech startups.

 

Life sciences companies large and small are pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into genetic medicines research, and Eli Lilly joining the movement with its Lilly Institute for Genetic Medicine, a new site that is launching in Boston’s bustling Seaport district and backed by a $700 million investment.

The Indianapolis-based pharmaceutical giant said Tuesday that the new institute is part of a broader strategy aiming to develop new genetic medicines. The site also builds on last year’s $880 million acquisition of Prevail Therapeutics, a clinical-stage biotech in New York whose lead program is a gene therapy for Parkinson’s disease. Lilly said that the researchers in both locations will work together to use RNA and DNA-based technologies to develop new therapies.

“Establishing the Lilly Institute for Genetic Medicine will allow us to pair cutting-edge technologies with our deep biological expertise in several areas including neuroscience and diabetes,” Andrew Adams, vice president of genetic medicine at Lilly and co-director of the institute, said in a prepared statement. “Lilly will focus on medicines acting at the nucleic acid level to advance an entirely new class that target the root cause of diseases, an approach that is fundamentally different than medicines available today.”

According to Lilly, genetic medicines currently account for more the 20% of its drug research in diabetes, immunology, and central nervous system disorders. In addition to its internal research, Lilly has also poured cash into genetic medicines research alliances. Lilly has a partnership with Precision Biosciences, a clinical-stage company that develops genetic medicines based on its ARCUS gene-editing technology. That alliance, started in 2020, focused on developing in vivo gene-editing therapies with a first focus on Duchenne muscular dystrophy.

Last July, the Lilly committed $25 million to Verge Genomics in an alliance focused on the discovery and development of new drugs for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Verge uses AI to study the genetic mutations that drive the disease. Lilly followed that deal with a $15 million equity investment in MiNA Therapeutics, a biotech developing small activating RNA therapies. And late last year, Lilly committed $380 million to an R&D alliance with Foghorn Therapeutics, a biotech developing drugs that target the cellular system for turning genes on and off.

Lilly projects that its new Boston site will grow from 120 to more than 250 scientists within five years. Meanwhile, the New York site is projected to grow to up to 200 scientists. The new institute will be housed in 334,000 square feet of leased space in a 12-story building operated by Alexandria Real Estate Equities. Lilly said it expects to occupy the new Boston site in 2024. When it opens, the
institute will also have space for biotech startups. Lilly said amenities will include configurable lab and office space, access to Lilly scientists, and the opportunity to collaborate with the pharma giant. The startup space in Seaport is modelled after Lilly Gateway Labs in South San Francisco, a share space for startups that opened in late 2019. Lilly said it expects the planned startup space in Seaport will create up to 150 new jobs once that space is fully occupied.

Lilly is the latest pharma giant to unveil significant investments in genetic medicines research. Last summer, Sanofi announced plans for an mRNA Center of Excellence, a 400-employee research division with sites in Cambridge, Massachusetts and Lyon, France. Sanofi will support this new mRNA center with about €400 million annually.

Photo by Flickr user Massachusetts Office of Travel & Tourism via a Creative Commons license

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