METiS reported RMB105 million of revenue and a RMB392 million net loss in 2025, so Lilly's upfront fee and early milestones matter more than the headline value.
METiS TechBio, a Hong Kong-listed developer of AI-designed drug-delivery systems, has signed a research collaboration and license agreement with Eli Lilly worth up to about US$1.1 billion. Lilly will pay an upfront fee in the low double-digit millions of US dollars, with the rest tied to development, regulatory and commercial milestones, plus tiered royalties in the single digits on net sales, according to the company’s announcement and a Reuters report carried by Investing.com.
The deal centers on lipid nanoparticles, the tiny fat-based shells that carry RNA medicines into cells. METiS will use its AiLNP platform, which uses AI to discover and optimize the lipids that make up those shells, to design delivery systems aimed at specific tissues for programs that Lilly selects. Lilly will handle further development and commercialization.
Neither company disclosed the target tissues, the number of programs or a timeline, and no drug candidate has been named, TNGlobal reported. Investors welcomed the news: METiS shares opened more than 6% higher at HK$12.69 on October 20, Gelonghui reported in a story carried by Sohu.
The deal targets delivery beyond the liver
Getting RNA medicines to organs other than the liver is the problem the two companies are tackling. The 21st Century Business Herald described the agreement as the largest AI-driven deal for extrahepatic delivery, meaning delivery outside the liver, by disclosed value, a characterization based on public data. Jiemian called it the first strategic cooperation in China built on a generative AI platform for this type of delivery.
AiLNP sits on METiS’s broader NanoForge platform, launched in August 2025. According to the company figures cited by the Business Herald, NanoForge has generated more than 10 million lipid structures and 100,000 experimental data points, and has made progress on targeted delivery to eight types of human organs and tissues.
Chairman and CEO Chris Lai said in the announcement that "delivery remains a critical determinant of therapeutic success," particularly as the industry moves into more sophisticated types of medicine. The announcement included no comment from Lilly.
METiS has built a business on platform deals since its May listing
METiS was founded in 2020 by MIT-trained scientists and incubated within XtalPi, and moved its headquarters from Hangzhou to Beijing in July 2025, 36Kr reported. Lai previously worked at McKinsey. Co-founder Chen Hongming is a member of the US National Academy of Engineering.
The company listed on the Hong Kong exchange on May 13 at HK$10.50 a share, raising more than HK$2.1 billion with US$148 million from 18 cornerstone investors led by BlackRock, according to Tencent News. Its shares opened more than 170% higher on debut. At HK$12.69, they sit well below that first-day level but above the offer price.
Lilly joins a list of more than 30 partners. KrASIA reported that METiS raised more than US$300 million before its IPO and has signed platform collaborations since July 2025 worth about US$45 million to US$109 million per target. Revenue reached RMB105 million in 2025, most of it an upfront payment for out-licensing its MTS-004 drug candidate in China, while the company posted a net loss of RMB392 million, according to 36Kr.
Milestone values rarely turn into cash quickly
The Business Herald cautioned that headline values overstate what drugmakers pay. Citing McKinsey, it said the nominal value of AI-related deals signed by the top 20 pharmaceutical companies doubled to US$29.5 billion in 2025, but upfront cash was only about US$600 million, or roughly 2%. Of 38 AI pharma deals signed in 2023 and 2024, actual payments by June 2026 came to less than 1% of their maximum milestone value.
That pattern frames what METiS shareholders can expect: beyond the upfront fee, larger payments depend on Lilly advancing programs through development and approval.
The first signal will be Lilly’s choice of programs and target tissues, and any disclosure of a development milestone payment, which would show the collaboration moving beyond lipid design into Lilly’s drug pipeline.