SNAPSHOT

Eli Lilly bets up to $3.8B on vaccines, buying three biotech developers to expand into infectious disease prevention

Lilly announced simultaneous acquisitions of Curevo, LimmaTech Biologics and The Vaccine Company for a combined potential value of up to $3.8 billion. The deals add vaccine programs targeting shingles, antibiotic-resistant bacteria and flaviviruses.

Why it matters: The acquisitions mark Lilly’s push beyond blockbuster obesity and diabetes drugs into vaccines and infectious disease prevention. The strategy could position Lilly to compete with major vaccine players like GSK while diversifying revenue streams as global demand grows for preventative therapies tied to long-term disease reduction.

Backstory: Lilly has been on an aggressive biotech buying streak, fueled by cash generated from its GLP-1 products. Earlier this year, the company also struck a deal for DNA delivery startup Engage. The vaccine expansion follows Lilly’s appointment of former FDA vaccine chief Peter Marks to lead infectious disease efforts.

Big picture: Big Pharma is increasingly framing vaccines as tools to prevent chronic diseases and downstream healthcare costs, not just acute infections. Lilly highlighted links between shingles and stroke risk, and between Epstein-Barr virus and diseases like multiple sclerosis and cancer, signaling a broader commercial and medical rationale for vaccine investment.

Zoom in: Curevo deal is for up to $1.5B for shingles vaccine candidate amezosvatein, designed to improve tolerability versus GSK’s Shingrix. While the LimmaTech deal is for up to $780M for bacterial vaccines led by a phase 1 Staphylococcus aureus program aimed at combating antibiotic resistance. Finally, the Vaccine Company deal was for up to $1.55B for flavivirus and Epstein-Barr virus vaccine technology supported in part by ARPA-H funding.

What’s next: Lilly is expected to accelerate late-stage development across the acquired programs and integrate them into a newly strengthened infectious disease division.

SNIPPETS

What’s happening in biotech today?

💥 KRAS combo: Kura Oncology reported early clinical data showing that its experimental farnesyl transferase inhibitor darlifarnib may enhance the effectiveness of Bristol Myers Squibb’s KRAS inhibitor Krazati in heavily pretreated patients with KRAS G12C-mutated cancers. In a phase 1a trial, the combination achieved partial response rates of 67% in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma patients and 50% in non-small cell lung cancer patients, including one response among patients previously treated with KRAS inhibitors. In colorectal cancer, responses were limited to KRAS inhibitor-naive patients, with a 29% response rate, while previously treated patients achieved only stable disease. Kura believes persistent mTORC1 signaling drives resistance to KRAS inhibitors and developed darlifarnib to counteract this mechanism. The combination was described as well tolerated with manageable safety, though Kura will not advance the highest tested dose.

🥊 ADC tag team: Adcendo has entered a supply agreement with MSD to evaluate its tissue factor-targeting antibody-drug conjugate (ADC), ADCE-T02, in combination with Keytruda in a Phase Ib trial planned for the second half of 2026. The Danish biotech is investigating whether pairing the ADC with the checkpoint inhibitor can enhance anti-tumor immune responses through immunogenic cell death, a mechanism in which ADC-induced tumor destruction activates immune cells and may improve the effectiveness of PD-1 therapies. ADCE-T02, which entered Phase I monotherapy testing in 2024, uses an exatecan payload rather than the MMAE payload used in Pfizer and Genmab’s approved TF-directed ADC Tivdak. Adcendo believes its design could offer improved tolerability and fewer side effects, such as ocular toxicity, neuropathy, and bleeding associated with Tivdak.

🧹 Scar sweepers: Researchers at the University of Edinburgh have developed a macrophage-based cell therapy that could offer an alternative to liver transplantation for patients with advanced liver disease. In the MATCH clinical trial, patients’ immune cells were transformed into mature macrophages and reinfused to reduce scar tissue and stimulate healthy liver regeneration. Among 26 patients who received the therapy, 70% were alive without needing a transplant after four years, compared with 40% of 24 patients receiving standard care. The therapy group recorded eight deaths, while the control group had nine deaths and five transplants, with no serious side effects linked to treatment. Researchers say the long-term results demonstrate the therapy’s potential as a new treatment option for end-stage liver disease, where donor organ shortages leave many patients without access to transplantation.

🩺 Liver lifeline: The FDA has granted accelerated approval to Gilead Sciences’ Hepcludex (bulevirtide) as the first U.S.-approved treatment for chronic hepatitis D virus infection in adults without cirrhosis or with compensated cirrhosis. Approval was based on results from the phase 3 MYR301 trial, where 48% of patients receiving Hepcludex achieved a combined virologic and biochemical response at 48 weeks compared with 2% in the delayed-treatment control group. Although the drug demonstrated significant reductions in hepatitis D virus RNA and normalization of liver enzymes, Gilead noted that confirmatory studies will likely be required. Hepcludex previously received conditional approval in Europe in 2020 and full approval in 2023, and it was a key asset in Gilead’s 2020 acquisition of German biotech MYR.

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