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Eli Lilly Teams Up With Two Biotechs To Target Autoimmune Disease, Hearing Loss In Deals Worth $3 Billion

By Vandana Singh | January 29, 2026, 1:58 PM

Repertoire Immune Medicines entered a strategic collaboration on Thursday with Eli Lilly and Co. (NYSE:LLY) to develop tolerizing therapies for multiple autoimmune diseases.

• Eli Lilly and Co stock is showing positive momentum. Where are LLY shares going?

Repertoire Immune is a biotechnology company focused on the discovery and development of programmable T cell-targeted immune medicines.

Under the terms of the agreement, Repertoire will receive an upfront payment of $85 million and up to an additional $1.84 billion for achieving certain development and commercial milestones, as well as tiered royalties on net sales.

The collaboration aims to develop treatments that restore immune homeostasis and provide patients with durable remission of their disease without the generalized immune suppression that is common with currently available therapies.

Repertoire will lead collaboration activities until development candidate nomination, and Lilly will lead clinical development, manufacturing, regulatory affairs, and commercialization of tolerizing therapies developed under the collaboration.

Repertoire will utilize its T cell receptor (TCR)-epitope discovery platform, DECODE, to discover and develop tolerizing therapy development candidates.

On Wednesday, Eli Lilly collaborated with another privately held firm, Seamless Therapeutics, focused on gene therapy.

Seamless Therapeutics inked a global research collaboration and licensing agreement with Eli Lilly to develop and commercialize programmable recombinase-based treatments targeting hearing loss indications, using Seamless' proprietary recombinase platform.

The company's technology performs large, precise DNA insertions in any target gene sequence and operates independently of the cell's natural DNA repair pathway.

Under the terms of the agreement, Seamless will design and program site-specific recombinases directed to correct mutations in certain genes of interest related to hearing loss.

Lilly will receive an exclusive license to the programmed recombinases to advance through preclinical and clinical drug development and commercialization.

As part of the agreement, Seamless receives an upfront payment and committed research and development funding.

In total, Seamless is eligible for over $1.12 billion, including potential development and commercial milestone payments, excluding tiered royalties on successfully marketed drugs.

In October 2025, Eli Lilly agreed to acquire Adverum Biotechnologies, Inc. Adverum’s portfolio includes intravitreal, single-administration gene therapies to provide functional cures that restore vision and prevent blindness.

In June 2025, Eli Lilly agreed to acquire Verve Therapeutics, Inc. for $10.50 per share in cash and up to $3 per share as a contingent payment.

Verve's lead program (VERVE-102) is a potential first-in-class in vivo gene editing medicine targeting PCSK9, a gene linked to cholesterol levels and cardiovascular health.

LLY Price Action: Eli Lilly stock is up 0.34% at $1,028.01 at publication on Thursday, according to Benzinga Pro data.

Photo: Shutterstock

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