Nxera Pharma to Receive $8.6 Million Milestone Payment

Tokyo, Japan and Cambridge, UK, Nxera Pharma Co., Ltd., a technology-powered biopharma company, announced on September 3, 2026, that it will receive a milestone payment of $8.6 million from Centessa Pharmaceuticals Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Eli Lilly and Company. The payment is triggered by the achievement of a late-stage development milestone in Centessa’s selective orexin receptor 2 (OX2R) agonist portfolio.

According to the press release, Centessa completed the acquisition of Centessa on June 24, 2026. Through this acquisition, Eli Lilly gained ownership of Centessa’s OX2R agonist pipeline, which includes clinical-stage molecules designed to treat various diseases associated with sleep-wake regulation and related neurological disorders. Nxera retains the rights to receive future development and commercialization milestones, as well as royalties, related to the programs.

Christopher Cargill, President and CEO of Nxera Pharma, expressed his satisfaction with the progress in the clinic and across the OX2R agonist pipeline. "We are very pleased to see progress in the clinic and more broadly across the OX2R agonist pipeline," Cargill said. "This is a very exciting portfolio with great potential to address major unmet needs across a broad range of disorders, and we look forward to announcing further updates that impact Nxera as key milestones are reached."

The milestone payment will be recognized as revenue in the third quarter of Nxera’s fiscal year, which ends on December 31, 2026. Nxera is a technology-driven biopharma company with operations in Tokyo and Osaka, Japan, London and Cambridge, UK, Basel, Switzerland, and Seoul, South Korea. The company is listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange (ticker: 4565) and has built an agile, new-generation commercial business in Japan to develop and commercialize innovative medicines.

In addition to its internal pipeline, Nxera collaborates with leading pharma and biotech companies, leveraging its unique NxWave™ GPCR structure-based drug discovery platform. The company continues to pursue new specialty medicines to improve the lives of patients with unmet needs in Japan and globally.

As of now, the future milestones and development updates from Nxera will be closely watched by investors and stakeholders.