Just a few weeks after announcing an agreement with the Trump administration to bring GLP-1’s to TrumpRX, Eli Lilly is again making headlines with the announcement of its $2.6 billion license, research, and collaboration agreement with ABL Bio.

The multi-program agreement is expected to develop therapeutics using ABL Bio’s Grabody Platform, a platform enabling the production of bispecific antibodies that can seek out target proteins with high specificity.ABL Bio has adapted this technology to a variety of therapeutic areas, including Grabody-B for central nervous system diseases, Grabody-T, and Grabody-I for cancers, targeting tumors through the CD137 and PDL1 pathways, respectively.

What are the details of ABL Bio and Eli Lilly’s agreement?

Per the terms of the agreement, ABL Bio is set to receive an upfront payment upwards of $40 million following ten days after completion of the administrative procedures under the Hart–Scott–Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act.¹ ABL Bio is also eligible to receive up to $2.562 billion in development, regulatory, and commercial milestone payments as well as tiered royalties on net sales.¹

In a press release, ABL Bio CEO Sang Hoon Lee said, “This agreement not only validates the business potential of the Grabody Platform, but also demonstrates the continued expansion of modalities to which Grabody can be applied. We believe Grabody has already established a strong foothold, and we intend to build on this momentum by broadening its indications into therapeutic areas with high unmet medical needs, including obesity and muscle diseases.”

Lilly continues to expand its partnerships and collaborative efforts

Along with its new collaboration with ABL Bio, Eli Lilly and Company also announced collaborations with MeiraGTx and SanegeneBio, respectively. ² The new collaborations aim to assist Lilly in developing and commercializing genetic medicines in its Ophthalmology pipeline, and advance RNAi candidates for metabolic diseases.

Lilly’s collaboration with SanegeneBio, focuses on advancing RNAi candidates for metabolic diseases, based on SanegeneBio's proprietary tissue selective delivery technology Ligand and Enhancer Assisted Delivery (LEAD).² As part of the agreement, SanegeneBio will be responsible for the discovery and identification of optimized LEAD-based RNAi molecules for each program, while Lilly is expected to handle IND-enabling studies, clinical development, and commercialization.

As for Lilly’s collaboration with MeiraGTx, the goal of the collaboration aims to develop and commercialize ophthalmology medications, with MeiraGTx granting Lilly worldwide exclusive rights to its AAV-AIPL1 program for the treatment of Leber congenital amaurosis 4 (LCA4) owing to genetic deficiency of Aryl-hydrocarbon-interacting protein-like 1 (AIPL1).

Exclusive access and worldwide rights to MeiraGTx’s gene therapy technologies will also be granted to Lilly, for use in ophthalmology with certain targets including intravitreal capsids developed in-house at MeiraGTx, and bespoke promoters including AI-generated promoters for specific cells in the retina.² As part of the collaboration, MeiraGTx will also grant Lilly specific rights to its proprietary riboswitch technology for use in gene editing in the eye.

Sources

1. ABL Bio Announces License, Research and Collaboration Agreement for its Grabody Platform with Lilly ABL Bio November 18, 2025 https://www.ablbio.com/en/company/news_view/896?keyword=