Eli Lilly Strikes $856M Deal to Co-Develop Gate Bioscience’s Novel 'Molecular Gates' Therapies

Lucky Gate

Gate is a relatively "young" company, co-founded by Jordi Mata-Fink and others in 2021.

In November 2023, Gate Bioscience announced that it had secured $60 million in Series A funding, officially stepping out of stealth mode. The Series A round was led by Versant Ventures and a16z Bio + Health, with participation from ARCH Venture Partners and Google Ventures. Both lead investors, Versant Ventures and a16z Bio + Health, are top-tier venture capital firms in the industry. Versant Ventures incubated CRISPR Therapeutics, a gene-editing company, while a16z Bio + Health invested in high-profile companies like Moderna. ARCH Venture Partners, an early investor in Illumina, and Google Ventures, a subsidiary of Alphabet, also joined the round as strong participants.

This "all-star investment lineup" is relatively rare in a Series A financing round and, to a certain extent, is related to the personal charisma of Gate CEO. Mata-Fink, who comes from Flagship Pioneering (the well-known institution that incubated Moderna), has participated in founding several publicly listed companies such as Editas Medicine. This "serial entrepreneur" background is highly favored by investors.

The core technology platform of Gate is named: Molecular Gate Discovery Platform™, the "Molecular Gate" discovery platform. According to Gate, the "Molecular Gate" has significant commercial development potential, capable of covering multiple therapeutic areas such as inflammation, neurodegenerative diseases, and cancer, making it an all-around auxiliary tool.

What is the "Molecular Gate"

To understand the mechanism of molecular gates, one must first understand proteins.

As the core executor of life activities, abnormal protein function is a key cause of various diseases. Normally, the human body can produce more than 4,000 different types of albumin. Theoretically, as long as these disease-causing proteins can be eliminated, it is possible to treat or even cure the diseases.

Under normal circumstances, proteins (whether functional or not) are synthesized in the cytoplasm and transferred from inside the cell to the outside through a single channel in the endoplasmic reticulum known as the "secretory translocon." The extracellular transfer of proteins is a core strategy for cellular adaptation to the environment, but its dysregulation can directly lead to disease, making this process an important target for drug development (e.g., therapies targeting exosomes or inhibitors of the secretory pathway).

"Molecular gates" can recognize the specific amino acid sequences of pathogenic proteins and selectively block their transport through the channel. With no place to go, the pathogenic proteins will be degraded by the cell and eventually eliminated, thereby achieving the purpose of disease treatment.

According to information on Gate's official website, the "Molecular Gate" can be applied to more than 1,000 disease-related extracellular proteins. This platform mainly focuses on the development of small-molecule drugs and has significant advantages in terms of drug delivery methods and production costs. Additionally, in earlier press releases, Gate mentioned that through this technology platform, it could develop drugs capable of crossing the blood-brain barrier. This suggests that the platform may also have the potential to develop oral therapies in the CNS field. If Gate’s claims hold true, the potential is indeed remarkable.

Eli Lilly's Ambition

Aside from the total price of $856 million, no further details of the cooperation between Eli Lilly and Gate Bioscience have been disclosed for now. The announcement did not specify particular molecular targets or disease areas, only stating that the two companies would identify "hard-to-drug proteins" in diseases with "unmet medical needs."

However, according to foreign media reports, Gate Bioscience will be eligible for some preclinical R&D support from Lilly ExploR&D. Regarding this, Mata-Fink stated that the collaboration advances their vision of transforming "molecular gates" into drugs.

ExploR&D is part of Eli Lilly's Catalyze360 – an early-stage biotechnology ecosystem initiative. Catalyze360 was first launched at the 2024 JPM Conference. According to reports, the program mainly consists of three key components: ExploR&D + Eli Lilly Ventures + Gateway Labs, with the core aim of providing funding and technical support for innovative technologies and platforms.

According to Sunil Nanda, Senior Vice President of Business Development at Eli Lilly and Company, while the company already has a commercial development department responsible for traditional corporate partnerships and mergers and acquisitions, the Catalyze360 initiative will focus on supporting emerging R&D models. By incorporating cutting-edge scientific achievements, the program aims to ensure that this pharmaceutical giant maintains its competitive edge.

Objectively speaking, compared with other multinational corporations (MNCs) that are forced to spend money to acquire pipelines due to the approaching patent cliff, Eli Lilly faces much less pressure in this regard. This is partly becauseThe excellent market performance of its GLP-1 product portfolio since its launch has indeed brought it ample funds, and on the other hand, it is because it has incubated outstanding single products in each therapeutic area, possessing a certain level of risk resistance.

However, from the recent developments of Eli Lilly and Company, its ambition is obviously not limited to this. It is reported that, apart from the aforementioned Gate Bioscience, the company is still screening more similar promising companies, and the richness of its pipeline will continue to increase.