Eli Lilly on Tuesday debuted in Boston, America’s largest biotechnology center, with a new facility dedicated to the research and development of cutting-edge gene therapies.
The new site, called the Lilly Seaport Innovation Center (LSC), will expand the pharmaceutical company’s U.S. presence by 350,000 square feet and will be able to accommodate 500 scientists and researchers. The LSC will also be able to house 200 employees from the Lilly Gateway Labs innovation center, which the pharmaceutical company uses to connect early-stage biotech companies with its platforms and expertise.
The LSC will work to advance RNA- and DNA-based therapies while devoting some of its resources to discovering new drug targets for Lilly’s priority disease areas, such as diabetes, obesity and cardiovascular disease. The pharmaceutical company will also use the LSC for research and development in neurodegeneration and chronic pain.
Daniel Skovronsky, chief scientific officer and president of Lilly Research Laboratories, said in a statement that the opening of the LSC will enable the pharmaceutical company to “collaborate with leading institutions and new talent to continue delivering breakthrough medicines to the people who need them most.”
With the opening of the LSC, Lilly is moving closer in the obesity race to its main competitor Novo Nordisk, which opened a research and development site in the Boston area in February 2024, the Boston Business JournalThe pharmaceutical first announced This expansion will be announced in March 2023, and it was announced at that time that the site will also focus on genetic therapies.
Lilly has been on the rise on Novo in the race for weight loss drugs. In the second quarter of 2024, Lilly’s product sales impressed investors by slightly beating consensus forecasts. Meanwhile, investors found Novo’s second-quarter performance disappointing. Decline of more than 7% shortly after the pharmaceutical company published its earnings report.
This discrepancy may be due in part to supply headwinds. Lilly Clean up the shortages in the US of all doses of the type 2 diabetes drug Mounjaro and the weight loss drug Zepbound. In contrast, while Novo has made progress in stabilizing its supply, a dose of Wegovy still limited available.
Lilly Novo also appears to be superior in terms of efficacy. Last month, a study published in JAMA Internal Medicine noted that Mounjaro 2.4% more weight loss than Ozempic from Novo – and this difference increased even further over the course of six and twelve months of treatment.
Competitors continue to compare their incretin therapies. Lilly is currently leading the Phase IIIb SURMOUNT-5 Head-to-head study in overweight or obese adults without type 2 diabetes. The results of this study are expected in November 2024. In the meantime, Novo challenge Zepbound with its next-generation therapy CagriSema with a Phase III trial expected to be completed in the second half of 2025.
