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Lilly and Profluent Strike AI Gene-Editing Pact Worth Up to $2.25 Billion

The deal aims to design custom recombinases that can insert long DNA segments with precision beyond today’s tools.

Overview

  • The companies announced a multi-program research collaboration to create enzymes for genetic medicine that act at exact DNA addresses.
  • Profluent will receive an upfront payment and research funding and could earn up to $2.25 billion in milestone payments plus tiered royalties on sales.
  • Profluent plans to use generative AI to build designer recombinases, which are proteins meant to place or swap kilobase-scale DNA at chosen genome sites.
  • Lilly will hold an exclusive license to move selected enzymes into animal studies, then into preclinical work, clinical trials, and possible commercialization.
  • No disease targets, timelines, or preclinical results were disclosed, signaling an early research effort with significant technical and regulatory hurdles still ahead.