From east to west: Lilly plans incubators in China and UK

The UK collaboration, revealed at the International Investment Summit in London, saw pharma giant Lilly select the UK to host the first Lilly Gateway Labs space in Europe. According to the UK Government, the facility will provide support for early-stage life sciences companies to advance medicines by providing mentorship, lab space, and possible funding to drive growth in the sector.

No specific location has been disclosed, but Wes Streeting, health and social care secretary, said “this announcement helps the UK take its place as a world leader in life sciences” and explained how a partnership like this is “key to building a healthier society, healthier economy, and making the National Health Service (NHS) fit for the future.”

Streeting referenced “the challenges facing the health of our nation”, such as obesity, which is linked to both individual and economic health. Lilly’s CEO David Ricks mirrored his statement and explained how “Obesity is the second biggest preventable cause of cancer and a major contributor to ill-health that prevents people from participating fully in work.”

Lilly is a major player in the glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) drug space. The Danish firm has received US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorization for Zepbound and Mounjaro (both tirzepatide) and thus is a major player in a market predicted to reach $102 billion by 2030.

Ricks continued: “This collaboration will bring together treatments and technologies developed by the life sciences sector and the health system seeking to demonstrate improved long-term health outcomes for those living with obesity.”

Eastbound

But it does not stop there for Lilly. In its second Gateway Lab outside of the US after disclosing its plans in the UK, the firm released a statement about building two sites in Beijing, China.

One of the sites has been named by Lilly as the China Medical Innovation Center, which it described as a hub for R&D operations. And the other site’s remit is to develop medical innovations internally, while also discovering breakthrough therapies by forming relationships with other researchers, both local and distant.

“The establishment of the Eli Lilly China Medical Innovation Center and Eli Lilly Innovation Incubator in Beijing will further deepen Eli Lilly's century-old business layout in China,” said Daniel Skovronsky, chief scientific officer at Lilly.

“The new center will enable us to explore new clinical research designs to accelerate patient access to breakthrough therapies. The Eli Lilly Innovation Incubator will provide office space and research strategy guidance for domestic start-up biotechnology companies to help them develop a new generation of drugs for patients.”

The firm already has established Gateway Labs in South San Francisco, California, Boston, Massachusetts and San Diego, California.