Eli Lilly, AI Drug-Discovery Company Nimbus Partner on Oral Obesity Treatment — Update

By Elias Schisgall

Eli Lilly and Nimbus Therapeutics have entered into a multi-year collaboration and exclusive licensing agreement to develop an oral treatment for obesity and other metabolic diseases.

Nimbus, an artificial-intelligence drug-discovery company, said Tuesday that it is eligible for upfront and near-term milestone payments totaling $55 million, as well as up to $1.3 billion in development, commercial and sales milestones along with tiered royalties on global net sales.

The partnership comes as pharmaceutical companies are racing to develop and market orally-administered weight-loss treatments, inspired by the runaway success of GLP-1 treatments.

Novo Nordisk shares jumped after the company said its Wegovy weight-loss pills, the first GLP-1 pill approved specifically for weight loss, had hit pharmacies across the U.S.

Lilly, which makes the diabetes and weight-loss drugs Mounjaro and Zepbound, is also developing an experimental GLP-1 weight-loss pill.

Lilly shares were trading up 1.7%, to $1,059.45, early Tuesday afternoon.

Nimbus and Lilly have previously collaborated on targeting AMPK in cardiometabolic diseases.

"We are pleased to deepen our collaboration with Nimbus, a team that has demonstrated exceptional ability to tackle complex drug discovery challenges," said Ruth Gimeno, vice president of Lilly's diabetes and metabolic research and development group.

"Working together to develop this novel obesity therapy represents an important addition to Lilly's efforts to advance innovative treatment options for patients with metabolic disorders," Gimeno added.

Write to Elias Schisgall at elias.schisgall@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 06, 2026 13:32 ET (18:32 GMT)