Lilly pays up to $870 million for Camurus long-acting incretin technology
A licensing deal, not new trial results, so nothing changes yet for people taking weekly GLP-1 or GIP/GLP-1 injections, though less frequent dosing is the stated goal.
Eli Lilly agreed to pay Camurus up to $870 million for the right to use the Swedish company's long-acting drug delivery technology with up to four of Lilly's incretin compounds, the companies said on June 3, 2025 [1][2]. The aim is injectable obesity and diabetes drugs that are given less often than today's once-weekly products [2].
The money is split in two parts. Camurus is eligible for up to $290 million in upfront, development and regulatory milestone payments, and another $580 million tied to sales milestones. It would also receive tiered mid-single-digit royalties on global net product sales [1][2].
Lilly can apply the technology to dual GIP and GLP-1 receptor agonists, the class that includes tirzepatide, sold as Mounjaro for diabetes and Zepbound for obesity, and to triple GIP, glucagon and GLP-1 receptor agonists, the class of Lilly's Phase 3 candidate retatrutide [2]. The agreement also includes an option to add amylin receptor agonists [1][2].
Camurus' FluidCrystal technology dissolves an active ingredient in a lipid-based liquid. When injected, the solution forms a crystalline gel inside the body that holds the drug, then breaks down slowly and releases it over "days to months," according to the company [1]. A separate account describes sustained release lasting days, weeks or months, depending on the formulation [2]. The technology is designed to be delivered with prefilled syringes or autoinjector pens [1].
The deal is a response to rivals working on medicines that are dosed less frequently than once a week [1]. Lilly currently faces a potential threat from investigational therapies dosed less often, and the Camurus agreement could help it counter that [2]. Lilly and Novo Nordisk, the two leaders in the obesity market, have not yet brought a longer-acting product to market. Mounjaro and Zepbound together generated more than $6 billion in sales in the first quarter of 2025 [2].
Several competing programs are already further along. Camurus is running a Phase 1 trial of a once-monthly version of semaglutide, the molecule in Novo Nordisk's Ozempic and Wegovy, and has once-monthly candidates of its own, including an acromegaly therapy that the European Medicines Agency recommended for approval in April [2]. Metsera plans to study an ultra-long-acting GLP-1 candidate as a once-monthly injection after reporting encouraging weight loss results in a Phase 2a trial [1]. Amgen started Phase 3 trials of MariTide, a once-monthly dual GLP-1 receptor agonist and GIP receptor antagonist, in March [2]. Novo Nordisk signed a deal with the Danish firm Ascendis in November worth up to $285 million in upfront, development and regulatory milestone payments for a once-monthly GLP-1 candidate [2]. Regeneron also paid $80 million upfront this week for rights outside China to a GLP-1/GIP receptor agonist [2].
"Through the collaboration with Lilly, a global leader in the metabolic disease area, we leverage our FluidCrystal technology in rapidly expanding indication areas impacting hundreds of millions of people, while maintaining our own commercial focus on CNS and rare diseases," Camurus CEO Fredrik Tiberg said [1].
Why it matters for patients
Nothing changes for people taking Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro or Zepbound today. This is a licensing agreement, not trial results, and no long-acting Lilly incretin product has been approved. Any such product would still have to go through clinical testing and regulatory review.
If longer-acting versions do reach the market, a longer gap between injections could matter to people who find weekly dosing inconvenient, painful or hard to fit into their routines. But whether a reformulated version of an existing molecule would work as well, or carry the same or different side effects, has not been established. Dose intervals for any Lilly product using this technology have not been announced. The duration of a Camurus formulation depends on the drug it carries, not on the delivery technology alone [2].
What happens next
No start date for human trials of any Lilly compound using FluidCrystal has been disclosed, and no target dosing interval for those products has been reported. Camurus' once-monthly semaglutide candidate remains in Phase 1 [2]. Amgen's Phase 3 program for MariTide began in March [2], and Metsera has said it plans a trial of once-monthly dosing [1]. Camurus said its acromegaly therapy received a positive regulatory recommendation in Europe in April [2].
Sources
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