Vasa Therapeutics Partners with Lilly TuneLab to Power AI/ML-Driven CAMKII Inhibitor Platform

• Vasa's CAMKII delta inhibitor, a leading discovery and development platform built on extensive crystallography data, will utilize Lilly TuneLab AI/ML predictive models to accelerate candidate selection. First-in-Human study planned for 2027.

ENCINITAS, Calif., April 14, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Vasa Therapeutics ("Vasa"), a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company developing transformative therapies for cardiovascular, neuromuscular, and age-related disorders, today announced an agreement with Eli Lilly and Company ("Lilly") that enables the company to utilize Lilly TuneLab, an AI-enabled drug discovery platform that provides biotech companies access to drug discovery models trained on Lilly's proprietary data.

"We are excited to utilize Lilly predictive AI/ML discovery models trained on decades of research data as a complement to our robust structural biology platform to accelerate candidate selection of our CAMKII delta asset and further expand our clinical pipeline," said Artur Plonowski, CEO and Co-Founder of Vasa. "We continue to execute on our mission to deliver transformative therapeutics to patients with limited treatment options: VS-041 is currently in a Proof-of-Mechanism trial for HFpEF, VS-214 is on track for its first-in-human trial in 2026, and we plan to initiate the Phase 1 clinical trial with our CAMKII delta inhibitor in 2027."

Vasa will contribute internal experimental datasets to support the platform's continued improvement. TuneLab employs federated learning, a privacy-preserving approach that enables biopharmaceutical companies to contribute datasets and tap into Lilly's AI models without directly exposing their proprietary data or Lilly's. 

About Vasa Therapeutics

Vasa Therapeutics is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company committed to delivering first-in-class innovation for cardiovascular, neuromuscular and age-related disorders. By focusing on mechanisms with strong clinical relevance, Vasa aims to deliver disease-modifying therapies that drive real patient impact through clinically meaningful and durable outcomes for patients. By pairing the right mechanism with the right chemistry, and with its proprietary know-how and expertise, Vasa is leading the way to create new standards of care.

Vasa has engineered a pipeline of four differentiated assets targeting unmet medical needs in heart failure, peripheral arterial disease, neuromuscular disorders, sarcopenia and life-threatening arrhythmias.

The company is headquartered in Encinitas, CA.  For more information, please visit www.vasatherapeutics.com. 

Investor and Media Contact:
Mike Geremia
Chief Financial Officer
[email protected] 

SOURCE Vasa Therapeutics