Ropes & Gray Advises Creyon Bio in Licensing Collaboration with Eli Lilly

Ropes & Gray represented Creyon Bio in a global licensing and multi-target research collaboration with Eli Lilly and Company focused on the discovery, development and commercialization of novel RNA-targeted oligonucleotide (oligo) therapies for a broad range of diseases. The agreement was announced on April 29 in a press release.

Under the terms of the agreement, Creyon will receive a $13 million upfront payment, which includes cash and the purchase of Creyon equity. Creyon is also eligible to receive over $1 billion in development and commercialization payments provided certain milestones are achieved. Lilly is granted an exclusive license to lead candidates for each target, and if Lilly decides to move forward after certain milestones are achieved, then it will be responsible for further research, development and commercialization.

Creyon Bio is a nucleic acid drug development company that uses its proprietary AI-powered oligo engineering platform to design oligo therapies that are safe and effective for patients with rare and common diseases.

The team was led by IP transactions partner David McIntosh and venture capital and emerging companies partner Rajarshi Banerjee.