Repertoire Immune Medicines and Lilly Collaborate on Treatments for Autoimmune Diseases

Repertoire Immune Medicines, a biotech company that develops programmable T cell target immune medicines, announced on Jan. 29, 2026 that it is collaborating with Eli Lilly and Company to develop tolerizing therapies that restore immune homeostasis for autoimmune diseases (1). As part of the agreement, Repertoire will receive an upfront payment of $85 million with up to an additional $1.84 billion for development and commercial milestones and tiered royalties on net sales.

Collaboration activities will be led by Repertoire until a candidate is nominated. Repertoire’s T cell receptor (TCR)-epitope discovery platform, DECODE, will be used to discover and develop the tolerizing therapy candidates. Lilly will then lead clinical development, manufacturing, regulatory affairs, and commercialization of the therapy.

“This collaboration further expands Repertoire’s partnered pipeline of tolerizing therapies and affords us the opportunity to translate the unique discoveries produced by our DECODE platform into potentially paradigm shifting new medicines for autoimmune patients by addressing the root cause of the immune dysregulation and resetting their immune system to a healthier state,” Torben Straight Nissen, PhD, chairman and CEO of Repertoire and executive partner at Flagship Pioneering, said in a press release (1). “Lilly’s established leadership in immunology and commitment to advancing novel, potentially transformative medicines to patients with clear unmet needs give us great hope for the impact our innovation can have in the hands of such an exceptional partner.”

Repertoire was founded in 2019 by Flagship Pioneering. The company’s DECODE platform reveals the entire immune synapse to provide understanding of the interactions between TCRs and their cognate antigenic epitopes. The company translates these discoveries into T cell-targeted therapies for the treatment of cancer and autoimmune diseases.

What other companies are collaborating with Flagship Pioneering and Repertoire?

In December 2025, Flagship Pioneering announced a research program in collaboration with Pfizer, in which Repertoire will identify and optimize TCR bispecifics for metastatic prostate cancer (2). Flagship’s in-house drug discovery and development unit, Pioneering Medicines, is leading the partnership with Pfizer and will drive the exploration process to discover potential drug development programs.

“Repertoire’s DECODE platform uniquely maps the entire immune synapse, presenting enormous uncharted potential to discover new antigens capable of activating the immune system to fight cancer, and when coupled with Repertoire’s immune medicine engineering technologies and capabilities, places us in a strong position to generate targeted medicines to engage them,” Nissen said in a press release at the time (2). “Guided by Pfizer’s drug development expertise in oncology, we will apply our platform to uncover new potential T-cell targeted medicines.”

“This research program with Repertoire demonstrates both the continued momentum in our strategic alliance with Pfizer and the breadth of novel modalities our Flagship companies offer as a supply chain of potential therapeutic innovation,” said Paul Biondi, Flagship Pioneering managing partner, in the press release (2). “We have now collaborated on eight programs across multiple modalities and five therapeutic areas in our shared commitment with Pfizer to co-create a pipeline of novel candidates that have a potential to become differentiated medicines with greater precision, speed, and scale for the patients who need them most.”

TCR bispecifics are a potential immunotherapy that may be able to overcome barriers associated with disease progression. The research program aims to identify and develop an early optimized TCR bispecific that can control the disease reduce toxicity, according to the company.

References

1. Repertoire Immune Medicines. Repertoire Immune Medicines Announces Strategic Collaboration with Lilly to Develop Tolerizing Therapies for Autoimmune Diseases. Press Release. Jan. 29, 2026.
2. Flagship Pioneering. Flagship Pioneering and Repertoire Immune Medicines Announce Agreement to Identify T Cell-Targeted Immune Medicines for Prostate Cancer Under Strategic Partnership with Pfizer. Press Release. Dec. 22, 2025.