Biotechnology company Repertoire Immune Medicines announced on Thursday that it has entered into a strategic collaboration with pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY) to develop tolerizing therapies for multiple autoimmune diseases.

The partners intend 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 use its T cell receptor (TCR)-epitope discovery platform, DECODE, to discover and develop tolerizing therapy development candidates.

Under the terms of the deal, Repertoire will receive an upfront payment of USD85m and up to an additional USD1.84bn for achieving certain development and commercial milestones, as well as tiered royalties on net sales.