Fauna Bio Announces Second Target Designation in Obesity Discovery Collaboration with Lilly

Milestone underscores continued progress in applying comparative genomics and AI to obesity target discovery

NEWARK, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Fauna Bio, a biotechnology company pioneering the use of extreme mammal biology, comparative genomics and AI to discover new medicines, today announced the designation of a second target from a different tissue under its obesity discovery collaboration with Eli Lilly and Company (Lilly).

The designation advances another target identified through Fauna Bio's proprietary Convergence™ AI platform, building on the collaboration's first target-designation milestone. This milestone triggers additional payments to Fauna Bio under the terms of the collaboration agreement. Details of the milestone payment are not being disclosed.

“A second target designation demonstrates continued progress and repeatability of translating the biology of hibernating mammals into new opportunities for obesity drug discovery,” said Ashley Zehnder, DVM., Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of Fauna Bio. “These animals can undergo dramatic changes in body weight and metabolism while maintaining their health. Our collaboration with Lilly is helping us turn those insights into targets for potential new medicines.”

Convergence integrates comparative genomic data from hundreds of mammal species, including hibernators, with human disease data to identify and prioritize potential therapeutic targets. Fauna Bio has expanded its discovery capabilities with Fauna Brain™, a multi-agent AI system powered by Convergence that brings together proprietary datasets, public databases and scientific literature to evaluate targets and assemble supporting evidence. Together, these capabilities connect insights from mammals that naturally resist disease with research into potential treatments for people.

Lilly and Fauna Bio entered into the multi-year collaboration in December 2023 to apply Fauna’s Convergence artificial intelligence (AI) platform to support preclinical drug discovery efforts and identify multiple targets for obesity drug discovery. As announced at signing, the agreement included an upfront payment, including an equity investment, and eligibility for up to an aggregate $494 million in preclinical, clinical and commercial milestone payments, as well as royalties on product sales.

About Fauna Bio

Fauna Bio is a biotechnology company using comparative functional genomics and artificial intelligence to discover therapeutic targets inspired by mammals that naturally resist and reverse disease. Its Convergence™ platform and Fauna Brain™ AI system combine insights from animal biology with human disease data to support the discovery of new medicines. The company is based in Emeryville, California. For more information, visit www.faunabio.com.