Covington Advises Sitryx on Licensing and Research Collaboration for Immunometabolic Medicines

Covington Advises Sitryx on Licensing and Research Collaboration for Immunometabolic Medicines

April 1, 2020

LONDON—Covington represented Sitryx on an exclusive global licensing and research collaboration with Eli Lilly and Company. The collaboration will study up to four novel preclinical targets identified by Sitryx that could lead to potential new medicines for autoimmune diseases.

Under the terms of the agreement, Sitryx will receive an upfront payment of $50 million and Lilly will make a $10 million equity investment in Sitryx. Sitryx will be eligible to receive potential development milestones up to $820 million, as well as commercialization milestones and royalty payments on potential sales in the mid- to high-single digit range. In return, Sitryx will grant Lilly an exclusive, worldwide license to develop and commercialize up to four novel immunometabolism targeted therapeutics, including Sitryx's two lead projects. Lilly and Sitryx will establish a 5-year research collaboration to support the development of the therapeutics, with Sitryx responsible for drug discovery, while Lilly will fund and manage the clinical development and commercial phase of the collaboration.

Sitryx is a biopharmaceutical company focused on regulating cell metabolism to develop disease-modifying therapeutics in immuno-oncology and immuno-inflammation. In 2018, Sitryx raised $30 million Series A funding from an international syndicate of specialist investors including SV Health Investors, Sofinnova Partners, Longwood Fund and GSK, a transaction on which Covington also advised. The company has a pipeline of projects at multiple stages of drug discovery and is headquartered in Oxford, UK.

The Covington team included Morag Peberdy (licensing), James Halstead (corporate), Guy Dingley (UK tax), Ansgar Simon (US tax), David Walder (employee benefits), and Ross Finnie (corporate).