Eli Lilly reaches deal to bring AI-developed drugs to global market
A drone image of the Eli Lilly logo is seen at the company’s office in San Diego, California, on November 21, 2025.
Mike Blake | Reuters
BEIJING — US pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly Hong Kong-based Insilico Medicine reached an agreement worth $2.75 billion to introduce drugs developed using artificial intelligence to the global market.
The deal will give Insilico $115 million upfront, with the remainder subject to regulatory and commercial phases and royalties from future sales, the companies announced Monday.
Insilico has developed at least 28 drugs using generative AI tools, and nearly half are in the clinical stage, Insilico founder and CEO Alex Zhavoronkov told CNBC. The company went public in Hong Kong in December. Its shares are up more than 50% since the beginning of the year.
“In many ways, Lilly is better than us in some areas of artificial intelligence,” Zhavoronkov said, noting that the US pharmaceutical giant has “one person” who brings biology, chemistry and automation under one roof. He added that Insilico will participate as part of the deal. Lilly’s Gateway Labs biotechnology development community.
The two companies have been working together since the signing of the agreement. AI-based software licensing agreement in 2023.
“This collaboration allows us to discover new mechanisms and accelerate the identification of promising therapeutic methods.” C.Andrew Adams, group vice president of Molecular Discovery at Lilly, said in a statement: He called Insilico’s AI-powered discovery a “strong complement” to Lilly’s clinical development.
Eli Lilly CEO David A. Ricks attended a high-level forum in Beijing earlier this month, just weeks after the company announced its future plans. 3 billion dollars investment in China in the next ten years. The company reported that it was slightly less 3% of income It came from China last year.
Insilico is developing its AI outside of China, in Canada and the Middle East, but is conducting early preclinical drug development based on this AI research in China, Zhavoronkov said. In addition to reducing research time, AI can synthesize molecules faster than those discovered using more traditional methods, he said.
