Eli Lilly signs Juvena deal worth more than $650 million for muscle drugs
Lilly is funding early-stage research into muscle-preserving drugs as weight-loss medicines draw attention to the lean mass people lose along with fat.
Eli Lilly said June 11, 2025 that it will pay Juvena Therapeutics an upfront fee and more than $650 million in potential milestones to search for drugs that improve muscle health and body composition [1].
The deal
Juvena will use its artificial-intelligence-enabled screening platform to identify drug candidates [1]. The platform maps the therapeutic potential of proteins secreted by stem cells, combining a database that links those proteins to specific disease traits with computer-based screening and laboratory work in human cells [1]. The size of the upfront payment was not disclosed [1].
Under the agreement, Lilly holds an exclusive license for lead candidates against multiple targets [1]. Juvena must reach certain milestones before Lilly decides whether to move a program forward. If Lilly does, its own teams take over all further research, development and commercialization [1].
Juvena used the same platform to discover JUV-161, a fusion protein designed to boost muscle regeneration. The company began a first-in-human trial of that drug in May 2025 in myotonic dystrophy type 1, a disorder that affects skeletal and smooth muscle [1]. That study is in a different condition from obesity.
Why muscle drugs are drawing investment
Interest in drugs that drive muscle growth has picked up alongside the surge in demand for GLP-1 medicines, which cause people to lose lean mass [1]. Losing lean mass could theoretically affect physical function and raise the risk of falls and fractures, particularly in older people [1].
Lilly's chief scientific officer, Daniel Skovronsky, described on a February earnings call what the company wants to see before advancing such a drug. "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," he said [1]. He added: "We don't see any signs that lean mass changes on tirzepatide or, to my knowledge, on any incretin are actually adverse in any way" [1].
Lilly's other muscle effort is bimagrumab, an antibody that blocks a receptor to stimulate skeletal muscle growth. Lilly gained it by buying Versanis Bio for up to $1.92 billion in 2023 [1]. Lilly expects to report data this year from a phase 2 trial testing bimagrumab together with semaglutide, Novo Nordisk's GLP-1 drug sold as Ozempic, Wegovy and Rybelsus [1]. Versanis started that combination trial before Lilly acquired the company [1]. Lilly has also launched phase 2 trials pairing bimagrumab with tirzepatide, its GLP-1/GIP drug sold as Mounjaro and Zepbound [1].
Rivals are working the same territory. Roche bought Carmot Therapeutics for $2.7 billion for obesity molecules, and Regeneron paid Hansoh Pharma $80 million for a GLP-1/GIP receptor agonist [1].
Why it matters for patients
No drug has been approved to prevent or reverse lean mass loss in people taking GLP-1 medicines, and everything described here is still in early or mid-stage testing [1]. Whether the lean mass people lose during incretin treatment leads to real problems such as falls and fractures is not settled; the article describes that risk as theoretical, and Skovronsky said Lilly sees no signs that lean mass changes on tirzepatide or other incretins are adverse [1]. At the same time, the company is paying for research aimed at the problem, which suggests it expects the question to matter commercially.
For patients, the practical effect in the near term is likely to be news about trials rather than new options. Any muscle-preserving medicine that reaches the market would still need later-stage trials and regulatory review, and no such timeline has been disclosed [1].
What happens next
Lilly expects data this year from the phase 2 trial of bimagrumab with semaglutide, and phase 2 trials of bimagrumab with tirzepatide are already running [1]. Payments under the Juvena agreement depend on Juvena hitting milestones; the value and timing of individual milestones have not been disclosed [1]. No dates for future readouts from the Juvena collaboration have been reported [1].
Sources
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