As the biopharma world predominantly invests in late-stage assets, Eli Lilly is prioritizing early science with the opening of a new Gateway Labs site, this time in Philadelphia.
“We really like to find companies early—maybe that's well before their series A, maybe that's three or four years before they enter the clinic,” Julie Gilmore, Ph.D., Lilly’s vice president and global head of Gateway Labs and Catalyze360 portfolio management, said in an interview with Fierce Biotech.
The pharma’s Gateway Labs model provides certain biotechs with access to state-of-the-art lab space and tailored scientific engagement, with four U.S. sites and two international locations so far.
Lilly works with companies early in their life cycle to “help increase their probability of ultimate technical success,” Gilmore explained.
The Philadelphia site will occupy 44,000 square feet across two floors of a newly developed building in the Center City area at 2300 Market Street, according to a Nov. 19 release from the building’s developer Breakthrough Properties.
The lab space will be adjacent to the University of Pennsylvania, Drexel University and leading academic medical centers, and is situated in an area that serves a diverse patient population, according to the pharma.
“This model for Lilly is a is a pretty big investment, especially in our scientific time and the way we engage companies,” Gilmore said. “Every site is a pretty big deal.”
Site selection strategy
Philadelphia has been on Lilly’s radar for some time, Gilmore noted during the interview, explaining that the company conducts extensive due diligence into different areas for “quite a while” before setting up shop.
“We know it is a geography that holds a lot of promise and potential,” Gilmore said. “It has a history of solving some difficult problems … that's where we want to be—we want to go support the ecosystems that are really working on the impossible thing.”
In particular, Gilmore cited the city’s scientific contributions to gene therapy and CAR-T treatments, early vaccine development and discoveries in Alzheimer’s disease. And Lilly is committed to continuing Philadelphia’s legacies in those areas.
“I 100% think that we're going to find some great companies in the gene/CAR-T therapy space,” Gilmore said. “But I also know that it won't be exclusively that—we will work with all biotech companies.”
Gilmore didn’t comment on what types of specific gene therapies Lilly was interested in and said the search for biotech participants is still ongoing.
The leader said the biggest question right now is evaluating how Lilly can most efficiently support efforts to deliver new treatments to patients with high need.
“And we see Philadelphia as that next kind of key geography for us,” she explained.
Lilly already has a close tie to the city through its 2010 acquisition of diagnostic solutions company Avid Radiopharmaceuticals. The company’s founder and at-the-time CEO Daniel Skovronsky, M.D., Ph.D., now serves as Lilly’s executive vice president, chief scientific officer and president of research laboratories, and president of immunology.
Meanwhile, the company isn't rushing as it assesses the landscape overseas for another potential Gateway Labs.
“We are still evaluating the U.K.,” Gilmore said. “It’s got a lot of promise and interesting science, but it is still under evaluation.”
When it comes to Gateway Labs, Gilmore noted that “[w]ith every site, the bar is getting higher."
Previously, the pharma giant announced plans to launch a Gateway Labs site in the U.K. as the first European site for the program. But, in September, amid an industrywide step back from the U.K., Lilly said it was pausing those plans due to concerns about the industry’s outlook in the country and low government spend on new drugs.
The company currently touts Gateway Labs sites in Boston, South San Francisco, San Diego, Beijing and Shanghai. The lab space initiative forms part of Lilly's broader strategy to drive the early-stage biotech ecosystem, dubbed Lilly Catalyze360.
Since the first Gateway Labs site opened its doors in 2019, participating biotechs have collectively raised more than $3 billion, with that capital fueling over 50 pipeline programs and platforms, according to Lilly.
Reciprocity and the rising of all boats
Philly biotechs that are selected to use the lab space will pay rent and, in return, receive access to fully furnished suites designed as a “plug-and-play solution,” according to the Breakthrough release.
Companies will also have access to Lilly scientists and executives, and there’s always the chance that something larger blooms from the lab participation.
“We help manage everything for them operations-wise, so they can truly just focus on the science,” Gilmore explained. “We do office hours with Lilly scientists once a company's in—if they're fundraising and they are looking for a strategic partner, we evaluate every opportunity to invest directly into a company.”
Lilly stands to benefit from the biotechs using its collaborate lab space, as well.
“As a matter of fact, we've had multiple examples now in this model where a company that we've started working with has helped inform where we want to go,” Gilmore said about the pharma’s burgeoning work in certain indications.
Specifically, interactions with other “Gateway” biotechs helped inform decisions Lilly has made to pursue potential treatments in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), according to Gilmore. The company now boasts a license to QurAlis’ splice-switching oligonucleotide that is being studied in an early-stage ALS trial. The pharma also inked a deal with British biotech Alchemab Therapeutics at the start of the year to develop new antibodies for ALS.
At the end of the day, the most important piece of the Gateway Labs program is bringing new innovation forward for patients.
“That's the ultimate goal, whether that ends up in the Lilly portfolio or somebody else's portfolio,” Gilmore said.
“We're doing well right now—we're kind of at the top of our game,” she said of Lilly overall. “It's really amazing to see us not only reinvesting in our own pipeline, but we're supporting those around us, too.”
In a time where most Big Pharmas—Pfizer, Takeda, Johnson & Johnson, to name a few—have launched major cost-saving initiatives, Lilly has remained notably absent from the list of those restructuring.
Referencing the “A rising tide lifts all boats” aphorism, Gilmore said “it feels good” to be able to support others.
“At the end of the day, we're investing in companies where we have a shared mission of helping reach patients and solve some of the world's hardest problems,” she concluded.