Teclistamab

Antibody platform business OmniAb continues to rack up Big Pharma partnerships, with Eli Lilly signing off on up to $370 million biobucks tied to an ion channel program. OmniAb spun out of Ligand Pharmaceuticals in 2022, having already partnered with Johnson & Johnson on a bispecific antibody that would get approved as Tecvayli. Since then, J&J has also worked with OmniAb on a phase 3-stage trispecific antibody for multiple myeloma called ramantamig. Other high-profile, clinical-stage partnerships for the platform company include Boehringer Ingelheim’s liver disease drug BI 3802876, Germany-based Merck KGaA’s anti‑CEACAM5 antibody‑drug conjugate precemtabart tocentecan for colorectal cancer, and Teva Pharmaceuticals’ anti-interleukin-15 monoclonal antibody TEV-408 for vitiligo. Now, Lilly wants in on the action. In return for an undisclosed upfront payment and up to $370 million in research, development and commercial milestone payments, the Indianapolis pharma will enter into a collaboration for “a new ion channel program.” The companies are keeping mum about the specific therapeutic target and modality involved. “We are pleased to enter into this important new relationship with Lilly,” OmniAb CEO Matt Foehr said in an Aug. 17 release. “Lilly is focused on delivering medicines to address major unmet medical needs and our differentiated expertise and established technologies that relate to ion channels are well positioned to help drive this new discovery program.” The OmniAb platform uses transgenic animals, including rats, chickens and mice, that are genetically modified to generate antibodies with human sequences for therapeutics. Ion channels, which play a key role in a range of biological processes, form one strand of OmniAb’s research. The California-based company touts its ability to “provide novel reagent generation and proprietary assays that can … support antibody discovery programs and can be accessed by partners when pursuing ion channels and transporter targets, allowing the advancement of drug discovery against this challenging target class.” OmnniAB attributed an uptick in service revenue in the second quarter of the year to the “commencement of new ion channel programs.” Despite its perception as a tricky drug class, Vertex has had some recent success bringing ion channel therapies to market, including the NaV1.8 channel blocker Journavx to treat pain, as well as the CFTR modulator Alyftrek for cystic fibrosis.

Emeryville, California-based OmniAb (Nasdaq: OABI) has signed a global collaboration and license agreement with Eli Lilly (NYSE: LLY) for a new ion channel program, with OmniAb eligible to receive up to USD 370 million in research, development, and commercial milestone payments plus tiered royalties on global net sales. An upfront payment is included but its amount was not disclosed. The therapeutic target and modality remain undisclosed. The deal is structured as a technology licensing collaboration rather than an asset transfer. OmniAb will apply its platform's specialized ion channel discovery and screening capabilities to generate candidate biologics; Lilly will retain global rights to any resulting therapeutic and bear full development and commercialization responsibility. OmniAb's economic participation extends through commercialization via the milestone and royalty structure, despite its operational role being confined to the discovery phase. Ion channels are historically resistant to biologic-based drug discovery because their therapeutic relevance depends on functional modulation of ion flux rather than simple binding, and their membrane-embedded architecture complicates antigen production and screening. OmniAb describes its ion channel capability as incorporating proprietary cell line generation, functional assays, and high-throughput single B-cell phenotypic screening — tools the company says are specifically designed for this target class. The back-loaded structure limits the significance of the USD 370 million headline value: the upfront payment was not disclosed, while most potential economics depend on future development and commercialization milestones. The deal follows OmniAb's USD 30 million private placement in August 2025. OmniAb reported 107 active partners and 409 active programs as of March 31, 2026, operating as a pure-play discovery platform licensor. The Lilly agreement extends a platform-licensing model that has already generated approved therapeutics: J&J's BCMAxCD3 bispecific teclistamab (Tecvayli) was discovered using OmniAb technology, while more than 30 OmniAb-derived programs are in clinical development or commercialized. The Lilly deal is structured as a single program with no disclosed multi-target or expansion optionality, and carries no equity component. Global rights with no geographic carve-outs are assigned to Lilly. OmniAb also launched OmniUltra in December 2025, expanding its discovery capabilities into ultralong-CDRH3 antibodies and picobodies, although the Lilly collaboration draws on its established ion-channel capabilities. Access the AllSci platform to explore the science behind the news. Spot something wrong? Report an issue with this article