Deal with Lilly blossoms as Alchemab raises a further $32m and extends Series A to $114m
The sweet spot for the company which identifies and develops naturally occurring therapeutic antibodies from resilient individuals, was the initiation yesterday of a Phase 1 first-in-human study of ATLX-1282.
ATLX-1282 was licensed to Lilly in May as part of an exclusive global licensing agreement, which included a milestone payment to Alchemab following the initiation of the Phase 1 first-in-human study. Alchemab will conduct the first-in-human study for ATLX-1282 and Lilly will lead further development and commercialisation of the therapy.
Alchemab also announced the $32m extension financing – a round which included participation from Ono Venture Investment (OVI) alongside a blue-chip syndicate of existing specialist investors which includes RA Capital, SV Health Investors, DCVC Bio and Lightstone Ventures and strategic investment by Lilly.
Alchemab’s proprietary, AI-enabled platform is transforming drug discovery by identifying protective auto-antibodies and novel targets from individuals that are naturally resilient to various diseases.
The platform operates like a search engine for the immune system, leveraging advanced machine learning models and proprietary data to interrogate the largest database of patient-derived antibodies, known as the DataCube, comprising over 6,000 highly curated patient samples from more than 30 global collaborators across metabolic, immune and neurological conditions.
The additional capital will enable Alchemab to advance ATLX-2847, a wholly-owned program for muscle atrophy derived from the platform, into clinical development. ATLX-2847 is a first-in-class program targeting the prostaglandin pathway. The financing will also support Alchemab to advance highly novel earlier programs for immune and neurological conditions towards clinic, and further expand its AI-enabled, disease resilience-led platform.
This financing follows a separate research collaboration with Lilly announced in January 2025 for the discovery, development and commercialisation of up to five novel therapeutic candidates for neurodegenerative disease.
“As a founding investor in Alchemab, we are thrilled to close this financing and initiate clinical development, which together mark a very successful year for Alchemab and the Company’s novel platform to identify protective auto-antibodies,” said Kate Bingham, Alchemab Chair and SV Health Investors Managing Partner.
“We’re extremely pleased to welcome new investors who share our commitment to novel drug discovery and development approaches and are proud to support Alchemab’s continued progress.”
Jane Osbourn, Co-Founder and CEO at Alchemab, said: “Reaching the key milestone of our first drug candidate into the clinic is great validation of Alchemab and our AI enabled next generation antibody platform. Through our collaboration with Lilly, we hope to get this, our first clinical candidate and a potentially transformative therapy, to as many patients as possible, as quickly as possible.”
Mike Hutton, Senior Vice President, Genetic Medicines and Neurodegeneration at Lilly, added: “I am excited about the rapid progress we have made with this candidate as part of a joint team effort with Alchemab and look forward to seeing its performance in the clinic.”
