Lilly Provides Additional Funding to Infectious Disease Research Institute to Identify New Tuberculosis Therapies

SEATTLE, Nov. 17, 2011 /PRNewswire/ — Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE: LLY) today
announced that it is providing more than $4 million in additional funding to the
Infectious Disease Research Institute. The funding will allow IDRI to continue
its early phase drug discovery efforts focused on identifying new and better
therapies in the fight against tuberculosis, including multidrug-resistant
strains known as MDR-TB. In addition, Lilly will provide more than $1 million
in-kind for volunteer time from Lilly scientists and access to the company’s
drug discovery expertise, chemical libraries, and research tools.

These additional commitments bring Lilly’s total support of early stage TB drug
discovery efforts through IDRI to more than $20 million – and Lilly’s total
funding of TB and MDR-TB efforts to more than $170 million.

IDRI is a member of the Lilly TB Drug Discovery Initiative, a not-for-profit
public-private partnership focused on accelerating early stage drug discovery
for potential new treatments for TB. TB and MDR-TB disproportionately affect
people in countries with developing economies.

“While preventable and treatable, nearly 1.5 million people die from TB and
MDR-TB every year,” said John C. Lechleiter, Ph.D., Eli Lilly and Company
chairman, president and chief executive officer. “Today’s TB drugs are decades
old and must be taken for extended periods of time, which present challenges for
patients and health care providers. More effective medicines with fewer side
effects are desperately needed.”

Lechleiter will address the company’s new funding commitment to IDRI on Friday
morning during a speech at the Washington Biotechnology and Biomedical
Association (WBBA) meeting in Bellevue. During his speech, Lechleiter also will
address multiple other issues important to the biopharmaceutical industry,
including public policies supporting an environment that stimulates medical
innovation.

Lilly TB Drug Discovery Initiative

The Lilly TB Drug Discovery Initiative was created in 2007 to accelerate early
stage drug discovery by bringing together specialists from around the world for
the systematic exploration of vast, private molecular libraries in search of new
TB treatments.

Located within IDRI’s base in Seattle, the Lilly TB Drug Discovery Initiative
involves representatives of government agencies, philanthropic organizations,
pharmaceutical companies, universities, and other research institutions. Its
most important goal is filling the pipeline with future TB drugs.

Lilly provided $15 million to launch and support the effort for a five-year
period. Included in Lilly’s initial funding was $9 million in-kind – including
fully equipped high-throughput screening and chemistry laboratories, research
tools, and scientific and technical expertise – plus $6 million in cash to seed
the organization. In addition to this initial funding, Lilly provided access to
a library of compounds – which has now grown to more than 800,000 compounds.

Today’s announcement of an additional $4.2 million in funding will allow IDRI to
further its early phase drug discovery efforts focused on TB and MDR-TB through
2016.

Steven Reed, president, chief scientific officer and founder of IDRI said, “We
are excited that Lilly is extending its support of our TB drug discovery
program. It’s a real vote of confidence in the quality of our scientists’ work
and the productivity of our collaborations.”

Lilly’s Evolving Role in the Fight against TB

In 1996, the nonprofit organization Partners in Health began pioneering work
that demonstrated cure rates of more than 80 percent could be achieved for
patients with MDR-TB using several drugs, including two Lilly antibiotics that
the company had planned to stop manufacturing.

Lilly began offering the two medicines at steep discounts to countries facing
MDR-TB outbreaks, increased its own production capacity and began freely
transferring its manufacturing technology to local manufacturers in countries
hit hardest by the disease.

This work officially evolved into The Lilly MDR-TB Partnership in 2003, becoming
one of Lilly’s signature corporate responsibility programs. Lilly originally
committed $70 million to launch the partnership, elevate MDR-TB on the global
health agenda, and transfer the company’s technology. In 2007, Lilly expanded
the duration and scope for the MDR-TB partnership by committing an additional
$50 million to the collaboration to complete the technology transfer and
strengthen awareness, prevention, and care for patients who suffer from MDR-TB.
In October 2011, Lilly announced it would commit an additional $30 million to
The Lilly MDR-TB Partnership to provide training for healthcare workers and to
improve supply and access to safe, effective, and quality-assured second-line
drugs.

Recognizing that new treatment options were needed, the company also launched
the Lilly TB Drug Discovery Initiative in 2007 to spur early drug discovery
efforts. Including today’s announcement, Lilly has now committed more than $170
million to the global fight against TB and MDR-TB.

“Our financial contribution is small compared to the billions of dollars needed
to fight TB and MDR-TB,” said Lechleiter. “We cannot solve this global challenge
alone, but – given our unique experience and capabilities – we will continue to
play an important role as a catalyst.”

About TB and MDR-TB

TB is caused by airborne bacteria that can spread to any organ of the body, but
most often is found in the lungs. Symptoms may include severe and prolonged
coughing, fever, weight loss, chest pain, and night sweats. The World Health
Organization (WHO) defines MDR-TB as resistance to at least two first line
anti-TB medicines. This type of TB often develops in patients who do not
complete treatment for regular TB or who have failed first-line treatment.

About Eli Lilly and Company

Eli Lilly and Company, a leading innovation-driven corporation is developing a
growing portfolio of pharmaceutical products by applying the latest research
from its own worldwide laboratories and from collaborations with eminent
scientific organizations. Headquartered in Indianapolis, USA, Eli Lilly and
Company provides answers – through medicines and information – for some of the
world’s most urgent medical needs. CR-LLY

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SOURCE Eli Lilly and Company