Eli Lilly has splashed up to $3.8 billion on an infectious disease pipeline, acquiring Curevo, LimmaTech Biologics and Vaccine Company to extend its buying spree into viral and bacterial pathogen R&D.
The Big Pharma, which has been picking up biotechs on an almost weekly basis in recent months, disclosed its acquisition of the three infectious disease companies simultaneously on Tuesday morning. The takeovers “reflect a deliberate strategy to prevent disease at its source rather than treat its consequences,” Daniel Skovronsky, M.D., Ph.D., chief scientific and product officer at Lilly, said in a statement.
The Big Pharma is paying up to $1.5 billion, split between an upfront fee and a milestone payment, to buy shingles vaccine developer Curevo. Securing the biotech will position Lilly to challenge GSK, which sells the shingles vaccine Shingrix.
Curevo designed its shingles vaccine candidate, amezosvatein, to improve on the tolerability of Shingrix. The biotech identified tolerability as an issue that deters people from receiving GSK's vaccine or discourages them from getting the second dose in the two-shot regimen. Curevo used a next-generation synthetic adjuvant to improve tolerability.
In 2024, the biotech reported lower rates of local and systemic adverse events in a phase 2 trial that pitted amezosvatein against Shingrix. At the time, Curevo planned to enter phase 3 in 2024. The timeline slipped, with the biotech choosing to enroll a further 640 participants in a phase 2 extension in 2025. Curevo raised $110 million to fund the phase 2 extension last year.
Meanwhile, the acquisition of LimmaTech gains Lilly vaccine candidates against bacterial pathogens. The deal, which could reach $780 million across both upfront and clinical and regulatory milestone payments, will give Lilly control of a pipeline led by a vaccine for Staphylococcus aureus that is in phase 1 development. Developing vaccines against pathogens such as S. aureus could help counter the emergence of strains that are resistant to antibiotics.
The Vaccine Company buyout is potentially the most expensive of the three deals, with Lilly agreeing to pay up to $1.55 billion across an upfront fee and clinical and commercial milestones. In 2024, Vaccine Company received cash from the U.S. Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) to create vaccines against flaviviruses, a family of pathogens that includes West Nile virus, dengue virus and Zika virus.
Vaccine Company has otherwise kept a low profile, quietly advancing technology designed to achieve the durable immune responses associated with virus-like particle vaccines while simplifying manufacturing. A five-antigen, phase 1-ready Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) vaccine candidate leads the biotech’s pipeline.
Lilly’s statement about the deals emphasized the potential for the three biotechs’ programs to tackle the long-term consequences of certain viral and bacterial infections. Shingles is associated with an elevated risk of stroke, while EBV is linked to multiple sclerosis and several malignancies. The risks point to ways to make the clinical and commercial case for the vaccines at a time of pressure on vaccine manufacturers.
With its focus on cancer, cardiometabolic health, immunology and neuroscience, Lilly has been protected from those pressures. But, flush with money from its GLP-1 juggernauts, the Big Pharma has decided to build on its infectious disease legacy by acquiring a vaccine pipeline. The deals come months after Lilly appointed former FDA leader Peter Marks, M.D., Ph.D., as head of infectious disease.