Eli Lilly & Co. agreed to buy Merida Biosciences for as much as $2.875 billion, adding another transaction to an acquisition campaign that is reshaping the pharmaceutical giant as booming sales give it greater capacity to shop for future growth.
The proposed all-cash takeover, announced Monday, includes an upfront payment and additional payments tied to milestones. Lilly did not disclose how much it will pay at closing. The transaction is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter, subject to regulatory approvals and other customary conditions, according to the company.
Lilly spent $13.3 billion on business-development activity during the first six months of 2026, primarily related to acquisitions including Centessa Pharmaceuticals, Kelonia Therapeutics, Orna Therapeutics, Ventyx Biosciences and Ajax Therapeutics, according to a regulatory filing. The company also raised $9 billion of long-term debt in May, using some of the proceeds to help finance acquisitions.
Lilly completed three acquisitions designed to establish an infectious-disease portfolio and subsequently struck an agreement to acquire AtaiBeckley, the company said in its second-quarter results. The Wall Street Journal reported that the initial consideration for AtaiBeckley was $2.8 billion and that Lilly’s three vaccine-related transactions could be worth nearly $4 billion combined.
Merida now joins that expanding collection of targets.
The Cambridge, Massachusetts-based biotechnology company is developing treatments for autoimmune and allergic diseases. Its lead experimental therapy remains in Phase 1 development, meaning Lilly is acquiring a company whose principal asset is still years away from any potential commercial launch.
That risk is partly reflected in the structure of the transaction. The $2.875 billion figure represents the maximum potential consideration, with some of the money dependent on Merida reaching specified milestones. Neither company disclosed the breakdown between the guaranteed upfront payment and contingent consideration.
Fierce Biotech, which reported on the transaction Monday, said Merida emerged from stealth in 2025 after raising $121 million. The publication described the acquisition as giving Lilly an entry into an emerging approach to autoimmune treatment centered on eliminating disease-causing antibodies.
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Lilly reported a 48% increase in second-quarter revenue and ended June with $9 billion in cash and cash equivalents, up from $7.3 billion at the end of 2025. Its recent transactions have stretched across cancer, genetic medicine, neuroscience, infectious disease and immunology, reducing its dependence on developing the next generation of products solely inside its own laboratories.
Reuters reported Monday that Lilly’s acquisition spending in 2026 has surpassed its pace in previous years as the company seeks to diversify beyond obesity and diabetes. Leerink Partners analyst David Risinger told Reuters that the Merida purchase provided further evidence of management’s intention to expand the pipeline beyond obesity.
The strategy illustrates how the commercial success of a handful of major medicines can alter the competitive landscape across biotechnology. Cash-rich pharmaceutical companies can acquire smaller developers, their intellectual property and their research programs before those companies have established significant commercial businesses of their own.
That can make regulatory review an important step in pharmaceutical dealmaking, particularly as large drugmakers accumulate assets across therapeutic categories.
For Merida specifically, Lilly said the transaction remains subject to regulatory approval but did not identify an antitrust obstacle or specify in its announcement which regulatory clearances will be required. The company expects the deal to close before the end of the year.
Lilly has confronted those procedural requirements across other transactions as well. In announcing three infectious-disease acquisitions earlier this year, the company specifically said completion was subject to customary conditions including expiration of the waiting period required under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act.
Source: Fierce Biotech
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