Eli Lilly Strikes $650M Deal with Juvena Therapeutics for Muscle-Boosting Drug Discovery

Eli Lilly has entered into a significant partnership with Juvena Therapeutics, aiming to bolster its muscle health research and development efforts. The collaboration, announced on June 11, 2025, includes an upfront fee and potential milestone payments exceeding $650 million.

AI-Driven Platform to Spearhead Muscle Health Innovation

Juvena Therapeutics brings to the table its artificial intelligence-enabled screening platform, which will be leveraged to identify candidates capable of improving muscle health and body composition. This partnership comes at a time when the pharmaceutical industry is showing increased interest in drugs that promote muscle growth, partly in response to the side effects of popular GLP-1 medicines, which can cause loss of lean mass.

The biotech's platform combines a comprehensive database mapping secreted proteins to specific disease phenotypes, along with in silico and in vitro human cell screening capabilities. This technology has already yielded promising results, leading to the discovery of JUV-161, a first-in-class fusion protein designed to enhance muscle regeneration. Juvena recently initiated a first-in-human trial of this endocrine therapy for myotonic dystrophy type 1, a disorder affecting skeletal and smooth muscle.

Lilly's Strategic Move in the Obesity and Muscle Health Market

For Eli Lilly, this deal represents a strategic expansion of its pipeline in the increasingly competitive obesity and muscle health market. The pharmaceutical giant has secured exclusive licenses for lead candidates against multiple targets, with the option to advance programs after certain milestones are achieved by Juvena.

This partnership complements Lilly's existing efforts in the field, including its $1.92 billion acquisition of Versanis Bio in 2023. Through that deal, Lilly gained ownership of bimagrumab, an antibody that stimulates skeletal muscle growth by blocking a specific receptor. The company is currently conducting phase 2 trials testing bimagrumab in combination with both Novo Nordisk's semaglutide and its own GLP-1/GIP drug tirzepatide.

Daniel Skovronsky, M.D., Ph.D., chief scientific officer at Lilly, emphasized the company's focus on functional benefits in muscle-boosting drugs: "We're probably going to either need to see incremental weight loss or we're going to need to see some real functional benefits to lean mass preservation. I think just lean mass on its own, we don't really know how to understand that."

Industry-wide Focus on Muscle Preservation in Obesity Treatment

The Lilly-Juvena partnership highlights a growing trend in the pharmaceutical industry, with several major players seeking to differentiate their obesity treatments by addressing muscle preservation. Roche and Regeneron have made recent acquisitions in this space, with Roche purchasing Carmot Therapeutics for $2.7 billion to gain obesity molecules, and Regeneron paying Hansoh Pharma $80 million for a GLP-1/GIP receptor agonist.

As the obesity market continues to evolve, the race to develop treatments that not only facilitate weight loss but also maintain or improve muscle mass is intensifying. This latest collaboration between Eli Lilly and Juvena Therapeutics represents a significant step forward in this competitive landscape, potentially paving the way for a new generation of more comprehensive obesity treatments.