Global law firm Freshfields advised Eli Lilly and Company (“Lilly”) on its global strategic collaboration and licensing agreement, and equity investment in, InduPro Therapeutics (“InduPro”) to discover novel oncology treatments using InduPro’s proximity-guided platform. InduPro is a biotechnology company defining membrane protein spatial relationships to create novel therapeutics for the treatment of cancer and autoimmune diseases.

Under the terms of the agreement, Lilly and InduPro will collaborate on up to three targets, for a total deal value of up to approximately $950m. Lilly will also make an equity investment in InduPro.

Through the agreement, Lilly will gain access to InduPro’s proprietary AI/ML-enabled membrane interactomics (MInt) platform. InduPro will lead early discovery efforts, applying its proximity-guided platform to identify co-target pairs and advance bispecific and multispecific antibody programs emerging from the collaboration.

The Freshfields team for Lilly included partner Kristen Riemenschneider, senior associate Zackory Burns, and associates Shannon O’Hara and Wolfgang Paulson advising on the collaboration and license agreement, and partner Calise Cheng and associates Jovian Marcelo and Anika Kharkar advising on the equity financing.