SanegeneBio, a US-based clinical-stage biotechnology company developing innovative RNAi therapeutics, announced on Saturday a global research and licensing collaboration with Eli Lilly and Company (Lilly), a US-based pharmaceutical company.

The company said this collaboration is to advance RNAi candidates for metabolic diseases, based on SanegeneBio's proprietary tissue selective delivery technology, LEAD (Ligand and Enhancer Assisted Delivery).

As part of the collaboration, SanegeneBio will manage discovery and identification of the optimised LEAD-based RNAi molecule for each program, while Lilly will handle the subsequent IND-enabling studies, clinical development and commercialisation. SanegeneBio's LEAD platform is claimed to have has the potential to deliver breakthrough therapies for metabolic diseases that is administered subcutaneously as infrequently as twice per year.

SanegeneBio will receive an upfront payment and equity investment and will qualify to receive near-term milestone payments. It will also receive up to USD1.2bn in discovery, development, regulatory, and commercial milestone payments and tiered royalties on future product sales.