Superluminal Medicines Partners with Eli Lilly to Develop Small Molecule Therapies for Cardiometabolic Diseases and Obesity
Saturday, August 16, 2025
Superluminal Medicines has entered into a collaboration with Eli Lilly and Company to advance new small molecule therapies.
The focus will be on undisclosed G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) targets linked to cardiometabolic diseases and obesity.
The partnership combines Superluminal’s structure-based discovery platform with Lilly’s experience in small molecule development and commercialisation. The aim is to accelerate the creation of next-generation medicines for conditions that present a growing global health challenge.
Under the agreement, Superluminal will apply its platform to discover and refine small molecule candidates. Once development targets meet agreed criteria, Lilly will hold exclusive rights to further develop and commercialise the resulting compounds. The collaboration includes upfront and near-term payments, an equity investment, development and commercial milestones, and tiered royalties on sales, with a potential total value of up to US$1.3 billion.
Superluminal’s platform brings together deep structural biology, machine learning and predictive tools for pharmacokinetics and toxicology to speed up the design of candidate-ready molecules. Initial work has centred on GPCRs, which remain one of the most complex and historically difficult classes of drug targets.
The company is based at Lilly Gateway Labs in Boston and is supported by investors such as RA Capital Management, Insight Partners, NVentures (NVIDIA’s investment arm), Catalio Capital Management, Gaingels, Cooley, and Eli Lilly itself.
