Lilly pays up to $870 million for Camurus long-acting delivery technology

Eli Lilly has signed a licensing deal worth up to $870 million with the Swedish company Camurus to use its long-acting delivery technology on Lilly's incretin drugs, including compounds related to Mounjaro and Zepbound ^[1][2]. The agreement, announced June 3, 2025, lets Lilly apply Camurus's FluidCrystal technology to as many as four of its own compounds, with an option to add amylin receptor agonists as well ^[1].

Under the deal, Camurus is set to receive up to $290 million in upfront, development, and regulatory milestone payments, plus another $580 million tied to sales-based milestones, along with tiered mid-single-digit royalties on global product sales ^[1][2]. The compounds under consideration include dual GIP and GLP-1 receptor agonists — the same drug class as Mounjaro and Zepbound — as well as triple GIP, glucagon, and GLP-1 receptor agonists, a class that includes Lilly's investigational drug retatrutide ^[1][2].

Camurus's FluidCrystal technology works by dissolving an active drug ingredient in a lipid-based liquid. After injection with a standard syringe, the liquid turns into a crystalline gel inside the body. That gel slowly breaks down over time, releasing the drug gradually so that its effects can last for days, weeks, or, depending on the formulation, months ^[1][2].

Lilly's incretin drugs already generated more than $6 billion in sales in the first quarter of 2025, and the company continues to study tirzepatide, sold as Zepbound for obesity and Mounjaro for diabetes, at higher doses and for other uses ^[2]. But Lilly and market leader Novo Nordisk have not yet released a long-acting obesity drug, and several competitors are moving in that direction ^[1][2]. Metsera has reported an 11% weight loss after 12 weeks in an early trial and is planning to test a once-monthly injectable GLP-1 candidate ^[1]. Amgen started Phase III trials in March for MariTide, a once-monthly injectable that combines a GLP-1 receptor agonist with a GIP receptor antagonist ^[2]. Camurus itself is separately running an early-stage trial of a once-monthly version of semaglutide, the active ingredient in Novo Nordisk's Ozempic and Wegovy ^[2].

The Camurus deal was one of five obesity-related deals Lilly made in the first half of 2025, according to the summary of this development. In a related move noted by BioSpace, Novo Nordisk struck its own deal with Ascendis in November for a once-monthly GLP-1 drug, paying up to $285 million in upfront and milestone payments ^[2].

Why it matters for patients

This deal does not create a new medicine that patients can use today. It signs Lilly up to develop and test long-acting versions of drugs it already has in its pipeline or on the market, using an outside company's delivery method ^[1]. If successful, this technology could eventually reduce how often people need to inject an incretin drug, potentially moving from once a week to once a month or longer, though the exact schedule would depend on the specific drug and formulation ^[1][2].

For now, none of Lilly's current products, including Zepbound and Mounjaro, use this technology, and no specific drug candidate from the collaboration has been named. Whether this deal changes cost, side effects, or convenience for patients is not yet known, since the work is still in early development ^[1][2].

What happens next

The sources do not report a specific timeline for when Lilly might begin clinical trials of a long-acting incretin product built with Camurus's technology, or when such a product might reach the market. Rival programs are further along: Amgen's MariTide entered Phase III trials in March 2025, and Metsera has released Phase 2a data on its own ultra-long-acting candidate ^[1][2].