INDIANAPOLIS — Indiana University and pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly have made official a five-year collaboration in which Lilly will give IU $40 million to expand clinical trials in Indiana.
A formal signing ceremony for the new research collaboration took place Wednesday at the IU Indianapolis campus.
“This is such a great opportunity for citizens of Indiana to have access to cutting-edge trials and for it to be a priority in our state to match people with certain challenges to opportunities for ways to solve it,” IU President Pamela Whitten said in an interview. “This is a great lift for the state and people in the state, as well.”
The effort is intended to broaden patient access to new therapies for Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes, cancer and cell and gene therapy while enabling the state to conduct high-quality life sciences research, an IU press release stated.
The initiative will be coordinated through IU’s Launch Accelerator for Biosciences, a program that supports research development at IU. One component of the agreement focuses on creating clinical trials that use artificial intelligence to accelerate trial design and improve patient enrollment.
Another priority of the project is to advance care and research for Alzheimer’s disease. The project will draw from IU’s neuroscience programs and Lilly’s Alzheimer’s research to explore better diagnostic tools and treatment approaches. Clinical trials also allow patients to access treatment at lower rates.
“If you look at a disease like Alzheimer's, only fractions of 1% participate in clinical trials even though it's a very difficult condition, and it’s a lethal condition,” Eli Lilly Chair and CEO Dave Ricks said in an interview. “We could bring that number way up if we had more treatment in the state available in clinical trials.”
Workforce development is another part of the collaboration. An IU press release said Lilly and the university intend to create programs that prepare students and current professionals for roles in biotechnology, pharmaceutical research and clinical trial operations.
According to IU and Lilly’s joint announcement, the partners intend to build an AI-supported trial infrastructure that begins within IU Health’s system and later incorporates other Indiana health providers to widen patient reach.
“For IU, it’s also important because it’s enterprise-wide, it’s not just a School of Medicine initiative but when you include Luddy with AI or Kelley with talent development, it truly is a full IU wide enterprise,” IU LAB President and CEO David Rosenberg said. “Working with partners like IU Health and other health systems, you can reach the entire state to help Hoosiers access that care faster, not just in central Indiana, but it can be a state-wide initiative.”
The agreement builds on existing joint research ties, including Lilly and IU’s joint bowl disease research, and talent development programs. As the partnership moves forward, IU and Lilly will assess results from the first five-year phase to determine how the initiative may expand across the state’s clinical and research networks.
