Eli Lilly struck a strategic collaboration and licensing deal with Seamless Therapeutics to apply Seamless’s programmable recombinase platform to genetic hearing loss, a pact worth up to $1.12 billion. Seamless will design site-specific recombinases to correct disease-causing mutations; Lilly gets an exclusive license to advance candidates through development and commercialization. The agreement gives Lilly another high-value entry in genetic medicines and validates recombinase-based editing as a complement to nuclease-based approaches. Seamless, a TU Dresden spinout, will receive upfront and milestone payments plus R&D support; the deal underscores big pharma’s continued appetite for platform bets that enable precise insertions or corrections independent of host DNA repair pathways.