Eli Lilly & Company recently acquired Disarm Therapeutics, a pre-clinical NAD-boosting company treating neuropathy and neurodegenerative diseases, for $135 million and a potential additional $1.2 billion in milestones.
Disarm was founded by Atlas Venture; Jeff Milbrandt, MD, PhD, the James S. McDonnell Professor and Head, Department of Genetics, Professor of Pathology & Immunology, Medicine and Neurology, and head of the McDonnell Genome Institute at Washington University School of Medicine; Aaron DiAntonio, PhD, Alan A and Edith L Wolff Professor of Developmental Biology at Washington University School of Medicine; and Atlas Entrepreneurs-in-Residence Dr. Rajesh Devraj and Dr. Raul Krauss.
As Disarm’s scientific founders, Dr. Milbrandt and Dr. DiAntonio discovered that the SARM1 protein is a central driver of axonal degeneration. Disarm’s SARM1 inhibitors are designed to directly prevent the loss of axons.
Read more about the acquisition here. Congratulations to all!