Eli Lilly and Company is spending up to $3.8 billion to buy three vaccine makers, supercharging its push into the immunology space.
Lilly has agreed to acquire Curevo Vaccine, owner of a midstage vaccine candidate against shingles, for up to $1.5 billion; LimmaTech Biologics, which is developing early-stage vaccine candidates that target bacteria, for up to $780.0 million; and Vaccine Company, which brings a preclinical vaccine candidate against Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) and other viruses, for up to $1.6 billion. Lilly did not disclose how much cash it will pay up front for each company.
The three acquisitions mark a “power move into vaccines,” Leerink Partners analyst David Risinger writes in a research note. Lilly had previously signaled that it could grow its immunology portfolio through mergers and acquisitions, but the purchases announced Tuesday are the first time Lilly has entered the vaccine space.
“These acquisitions reflect a deliberate strategy to prevent disease at its source rather than treat its consequences,” Lilly chief scientific and product officer Daniel Skovronsky says in a statement.
The outlook for vaccines has been shaky over the past year. Amid growing vaccine hesitancy in the US and opposition from public health officials including Health and Human Services secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., some vaccine developers have scaled back. Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel said in January that his company no longer planned to invest in new late-stage vaccine trials, for instance.
But the uncertain environment hasn’t deterred everyone. “The companies that are dedicated to vaccines long term, they’re dedicated to vaccines long term,” Novavax CEO John Jacobs told investors at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference in January. And after US Food and Drug Administration commissioner Marty Makary’s resignation earlier this month, the agency could be open to new vaccines.
In October, Lilly hired Peter Marks, former head of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, to head its infectious disease work. “Strategically, the trio of acquisitions is consistent with the Marks hire and signals [Lilly’s] intent to be a vaccine innovator,” Risinger writes.
The purchases are Lilly’s 8th, 9th, and 10th this year alone. The firm is currently the most valuable pharmaceutical company in the world, thanks to the resounding success of its glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) receptor agonists for diabetes and weight loss. Lilly previously announced agreements to acquire circular RNA firm Orna Therapeutics, inflammatory disease start-up Ventyx Biosciences, narcolepsy drug developer Centessa Pharmaceuticals, antibody-drug conjugate firm CrossBridge Bio, cancer cell therapy company Kelonia Therapeutics, blood cancer drugmaker Ajax Therapeutics, and nonviral DNA delivery system developer Engage Bio.
Rowan Walrath is an associate editor and life sciences reporter at C&EN.
