LLY
Lilly’s new hobby: buying prevention
Eli Lilly is back in deal mode, and this time it’s shopping in the infectious-disease aisle. The company said Tuesday it plans to acquire Curevo, LimmaTech Biologics, and Vaccine Company as part of a broader push into vaccines and prevention tech.
That’s not just a random side quest. Lilly says it wants to target diseases at the source instead of waiting around to treat the aftermath — a pitch that sounds a lot like “an ounce of prevention” got a pharmaceutical-grade upgrade.
Why these targets matter
The three companies bring different pieces to the puzzle:
- Curevo has a Phase 2 shingles vaccine candidate, amezosvatein, which Lilly says matched the current standard of care while causing fewer side effects.
- LimmaTech is working on vaccines for drug-resistant bacterial pathogens like Staphylococcus aureus and gonorrhea.
- Vaccine Company is developing nanoparticle-based vaccine tech, including an Epstein-Barr virus candidate.
Put together, the deals show Lilly isn’t just trying to grow a bigger drug cabinet — it’s trying to build a prevention platform.
The bill isn’t tiny
The headline numbers are chunky enough to make a CFO blink. Lilly said the packages could total up to:
- $1.5 billion for Curevo
- $780 million for LimmaTech
- $1.55 billion for Vaccine Company
That’s a lot of future milestone money, which means the final price tag depends on how smoothly these programs move along. Translation: Lilly is paying for optionality, not just assets.
Big picture
For investors, this is Lilly saying it wants to be more than the GLP-1 story. If these vaccine bets work, they could widen the company’s long-term moat in a category that’s easy to underestimate until a new disease trend comes knocking. If not, well, biotech shopping sprees have a way of looking charming right up until the milestones start stacking up.