Lilly and Remedium Bio to develop gene therapies for obesity and type 2 diabetes

Eli Lilly and Remedium Bio, a Boston-based genetic medicine company, will work together to develop gene therapies for type 2 diabetes and obesity, the companies announced on September 8, 2025 ^[1]. The collaboration is a research and development deal, not a product launch, and it targets treatments given once rather than on a repeating schedule ^[1].

The work uses Remedium's Prometheus platform, which the company describes as a subcutaneous, dose-adjustable gene delivery system ^[1]. According to the announcement, the aim is to develop and commercialize "one-time treatments designed to offer tunable control of therapeutic protein expression with multi-year efficacy" ^[1]. Remedium says the platform is meant to replace a broad range of injected protein treatments with a single injection that can be adjusted after treatment, at what it calls a fraction of the cost of current protein-based treatments ^[1]. That cost comparison is the company's own description, not an independent finding.

Remedium will receive an upfront payment, an equity investment, and potential development and commercialization milestone payments, plus tiered royalties on worldwide net sales of any resulting products ^[1]. The specific dollar amounts were not disclosed ^[1]. The announcement did not name the individual biological targets the collaboration will pursue, only that there are multiple targets in obesity and type 2 diabetes ^[1].

"We are thrilled to collaborate with Lilly, a global leader in metabolic disease therapeutics, to bring durable, tunable therapies to patients living with Type 2 diabetes and obesity," said Frank Luppino, CEO of Remedium Bio ^[1]. He added that the deal "validates the potential of the Prometheus platform" and expands its reach to one of the world's largest therapeutic markets ^[1].

Remedium operates out of Lilly Gateway Labs in Boston, part of Lilly's Catalyze360 program, which gives early-stage companies lab space, funding and development resources ^[1]. STAT's Readout newsletter reported the same day that Lilly was looking into gene therapies for obesity, framing it as an early move into a new treatment approach ^[2].

Why it matters for patients

Gene therapy is a different category of treatment from the injected drugs most people with obesity or type 2 diabetes use today. Instead of a medicine that clears from the body and must be taken again, gene therapy aims to change cells so they produce a therapeutic protein themselves ^[1]. If that worked, it could mean far fewer doses, which is the stated goal of this collaboration ^[1].

It is also a much earlier and less certain approach. The announcement describes research and development work, and no human studies of these programs have been reported ^[1]. Nothing described here is an approved product, and nothing about the deal changes what is currently available to patients ^[1]. People already taking weekly or daily medication have no reason to expect a gene therapy option in the near term based on this announcement.

The idea of a permanent or long-lasting change to how the body makes a protein also raises questions that the announcement does not address, such as how long any effect actually lasts in people, how it would be monitored, and how it would be priced. Remedium says the platform allows the dose to be adjusted after treatment, which the company presents as a way to manage how much protein is produced ^[1]. Whether that works as described has not been established in people.

What happens next

No timelines were disclosed. The companies did not say when they expect to start human testing, which targets will be tested first, how many patients would be involved, or when any product might reach the market ^[1]. Those details have not been reported ^[1]. Financial terms beyond the general structure — upfront payment, equity, milestones and royalties — were not disclosed ^[1].