With six acquisitions already this year, Eli Lilly’s business development shows no signs of stopping as executives make good on a promise to spend their GLP-1 gains.
Eli Lilly deals are popping up like mushrooms after the rain, so much so that, on Tuesday, the BioSpace editorial team had a severe case of déjà vu.
That’s when Lilly offered up to $2.25 billion to work with AI-focused Profluent Bio to find new DNA editing tools and develop more precise treatments for genetic conditions with severe unmet need.
Just the day before, Lilly penned a deal worth up to $2.3 billion biobucks for Ajax Therapeutics, which is working on AJ1-11095 for the rare blood cancers known as myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPN).
So far, Lilly has put up $20.9 billion, far exceeding its single-year tally from the last 10 years, according to deal total data recorded by S&P Capital IQ. And Lilly has already matched its 10-year high in terms of deal count with six this year, last met in 2023 when it bought Mablink Biosciences, POINT Biopharma, Versanis Bio, Emergence Therapeutics, Sigilon Therapeutics and DICE Therapeutics, for a total spend of $6.1 billion, according to S&P.
The Ajax deal “is further evidence of management’s intent to aggressively reinvest obesity cash flows to enhance its pipeline,” Leerink Partners wrote on Monday. Leerink and BMO Capital Markets also noted that the deal pushes Lilly deeper into hematology.
But that’s not all—especially in oncology. On April 14, Lilly bought CrossBridge Bio for a small outlay of $300 million. The deal bolsters Lilly’s cancer portfolio with tech that develops dual payload antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs).
Before that, Lilly signed transactions with Insilico Medicine, Kelonia Therapeutics and more.
Not to mention the seven licensing deals Lilly has signed in 2026 with the likes of Insilico Medicines, Repertoire and Seamless Therapeutics. Are Lilly’s business development folks just sleeping in the office at this point?
The $3.25 billion upfront paid for in vivo CAR T–focused Kelonia represents about 0.4% of Lilly’s $830 billion market cap that day, Leerink wrote in a note commenting on the transaction. The deal was also the third in vivo transaction for Lilly, after Orna in February and Verve last year.
When Lilly bought sleep-focused Centessa Pharmaceuticals in March, it was Lilly’s second biggest deal in 10 years, behind Loxo Oncology, which maintains a legacy at the pharma seven years after folding in.
If you, like us, are struggling to keep up with the pace of Lilly’s rapid-fire BD team, then you are in luck. See below for a recap of all Lilly’s deal activity for the year. This is as much for us as it is for you, dear reader. It’s been hard to keep track of all these mushrooms, from ADCs to CAR Ts to AI and more.
On Thursday, we’ll hear directly from Lilly as it reports first quarter earnings. Analysts will certainly be asking for an update on the BD strategy—could they possibly execute more?
As of the end of 2025, Lilly had more than $65 billion in revenue—a 45% increase on the year prior, compared to about $43.8 billion in total debt, according to S&P Capital IQ. And the pharma has $7.3 billion in cash kicking around—plenty to fund more than one of the deals mentioned above just from pocket change.
With all that firepower, Lilly will undoubtedly sprout more mushrooms as the pharma continues to enjoy its current rain shower. Here at BioSpace, we can smell the petrichor in the air.
