Eli Lilly and Company and Canada-based QurCan Therapeutics have entered into an exclusive research and collaboration agreement to develop genetic medicine therapeutics for diseases affecting the central and peripheral nervous systems.

The collaboration will focus on multiple research programmes using QurCan’s Target-Engineered Responsive Polymer (TERP) polymer-lipid nanoparticle (PLNP) delivery platform, which is designed to enable non-viral delivery of genetic medicines.

Under the agreement, QurCan will optimise genetic therapeutics using its platform, while Lilly will oversee further research, clinical development and commercialisation of selected programmes.

QurCan will receive an upfront payment and a strategic investment from Lilly. The company is also eligible for research support payments and could receive research, development and commercial milestone payments of up to $237 million per programme, in addition to tiered royalties on global net sales of commercialised products.

“This collaboration with Lilly represents a validation of our PLNP technology platform and its potential to address some of the most challenging delivery problems in genetic medicine,” said Mohammad Ali Amini, CEO, QurCan Therapeutics.

“The CNS and PNS remain among the most underserved areas in genetic medicine delivery, and we believe our non-viral approach offers a differentiated and versatile solution across various nucleotide cargos,” he added.

QurCan’s TERP platform is designed to support systemic, repeat-dosable and targeted delivery of messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA), deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and oligonucleotide payloads to relevant cells.

The agreement expands Lilly’s research activities in neuroscience and genetic medicines, while providing QurCan access to Lilly’s drug development and commercialisation capabilities.