Eli Lilly on Tuesday announced agreements to acquire three companies, adding to its “infectious disease portfolio.”

“Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE: LLY) today announced agreements to acquire three companies, Curevo Inc. (Curevo), LimmaTech Biologics AG (LimmaTech Biologics), and Vaccine Company, Inc. (Vaccine Company), that expand its research and development efforts into infectious disease. The transactions advance Lilly’s strategy of investing in differentiated technology platforms to address significant health problems,” the company announced in a press release.

The agreements for the three companies are worth approximately $3.8 billion.

CNBC shared further:

The company said it had agreed deals to buy Curevo, LimmaTech Biologics and Vaccine Company for $1.5 billion, $780 million and $1.55 billion, respectively.

Shares of Eli Lilly rose 0.9% shortly after the market opened.

ADVERTISEMENT

“These acquisitions reflect a deliberate strategy to prevent disease at its source rather than treat its consequences,” Daniel M. Skovronsky, chief scientific and product officer and president, said in a statement.

Curevo has developed a vaccine for the prevention of shingles in adults and was specifically engineered with a synthetic adjuvant to increase immune system tolerability and reduce side effects.

LimmaTech aims to tackle bacterial pathogens, including sexually transmitted infections like Neisseria gonorrhoeae and chlamydia trachomatis, where there’s increased antimicrobial drug resistance.

The Vaccine Company is developing In Vivo Nanoparticle (IVN) technologies that utilize tiny particles to safely deliver drugs, genetic material or diagnostic sensors into the living body and combat viral pathogens, including the Epstein-Barr Virus.

“Decades of evidence now link common infections to diseases that potentially emerge years later, including neurological disease, cancer and infertility. And as antimicrobial resistance erodes our ability to treat bacterial infections, vaccines are increasingly the only path to prevention. Combining these companies’ platforms and teams with Lilly’s global scale positions us to change that trajectory,” Skovronsky said.

“Eli Lilly hired Peter Marks, the FDA official who pushed unlimited COVID boosters for children, then bought up three vaccine manufacturers for $3.8 billion,” Daily Caller News Foundation senior investigative reporter Emily Kopp commented.

“This is why when people are told vaccine manufacturers require legal immunity to be profitable, most people aren’t buying it,” she added.

More from Eli Lilly:

Curevo’s lead product candidate is amezosvatein, an adjuvanted subunit vaccine for the prevention of shingles in adults. While the current standard of care for shingles prevention is effective, tolerability challenges can limit the overall vaccination rates and contribute to second-dose hesitancy, leaving a meaningful portion of patients with reduced or no protection against shingles and its long-term consequences. Amezosvatein was engineered with a next-generation synthetic adjuvant to overcome this problem. In a Phase 2 clinical trial head-to-head against the standard of care, amezosvatein matched immune response across all primary endpoints and reduced side effects such as activity-limiting fatigue, chills, and pain at the injection site by more than half. Given growing evidence linking shingles to elevated risk of stroke, and that shingles vaccination is associated with reduced dementia risk, a meaningfully better-tolerated vaccine could expand the reach of shingles prevention and reduce these long-term risks at a population level.

Under the terms of the agreement, Lilly will acquire Curevo and Curevo shareholders could receive up to $1.5 billion in cash, inclusive of an upfront payment and subsequent payment upon achievement of a specified milestone.

ADVERTISEMENT

LimmaTech Biologics is developing vaccines against bacterial pathogens for which rising antimicrobial resistance is steadily closing therapeutic options, including Staphylococcus aureus, Neisseria gonorrhoeae, and Chlamydia trachomatis. The company’s proprietary platform is designed to generate broad, durable immune responses against complex bacterial targets by targeting the toxins and superantigens that drive disease. LimmaTech’s lead program, LTB-SA7, is in Phase 1 development as a vaccine against S. aureus, the leading cause of surgical-site infection. The company’s preclinical pipeline is pursuing additional bacterial pathogens, including those that drive infertility and other long-term consequences of infection that fall disproportionately on women. A vaccine-led prevention strategy could change the trajectory of diseases that are becoming increasingly difficult to treat.

Under the terms of the agreement, Lilly will acquire LimmaTech for up to $780 million in cash, inclusive of an upfront payment and additional potential payments based upon the achievement of certain clinical and regulatory milestones.

Vaccine Company is developing proprietary In Vivo Nanoparticle (IVN) technologies designed to enable the antigen display known to elicit durable immune responses associated with virus-like particle vaccines, while avoiding the manufacturing burden of traditional VLP production. The company is advancing a broad preclinical pipeline spanning multiple viral pathogens; the lead program applies this technology to Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV) with a five-antigen Phase 1-ready candidate. Given the growing evidence linking EBV to multiple sclerosis and several malignancies, a prophylactic vaccine could prevent not only acute infectious mononucleosis but also the long-term neurological and oncological consequences that may follow infection.

Under the terms of the agreement, Lilly will acquire Vaccine Company and Vaccine Company shareholders could receive up to $1.55 billion in cash, inclusive of an upfront payment and subsequent payments upon achievement of certain clinical and commercial milestones.

 

Join The Conversation. Leave a Comment.