Dive Brief:
- Eli Lilly is beefing up its immune-disease pipeline, announcing Monday the acquisition of privately held Merida Biosciences, which has developed a technology capable of targeting and eliminating the malfunctioning antibodies implicated in many autoimmune disorders.
- Lilly didn’t disclose how much it’s paying up front for Merida. But in total, the pharmaceutical giant could shell out nearly $2.9 billion when including unspecified milestones. The deal is expected to close by the end of the year.
- Lilly has announced 12 company acquisitions so far in 2026, by far the most among its pharmaceutical peers, according to BioPharma Dive data. Monday’s deal was the third focused on immunological medicines, following a $1.2 billion buyout of Ventyx Biosciences and a potentially $2.4 billion purchase of Orna Therapeutics.
Dive Insight:
Lilly is best known for its popular obesity and diabetes medicines, overshadowing its efforts to develop medicines for many other conditions. The massive sales windfall from Zepbound and Mounjaro has given Lilly a huge war chest to work with. It’s used those dollars of late on a series of smaller acquisitions that have given it drugs or technologies that can fill out its pipeline.
In Merida, Lilly is gaining a potentially new way to treat autoimmune conditions. Rather than broadly suppress the immune system, the startup’s medicines are supposed to bind to and tag disease-causing autoantibodies for destruction, a “precise approach” that’s supposed to get at the biological cause of many immune diseases, Lilly said.
Merida’s lead drug, called MER511, aims to disrupt the autoantibodies involved in Graves disease, a condition that occurs when the immune system attacks the thyroid gland. Lilly noted that, while there are multiple treatments available for Graves and a related disorder called thyroid eye disease, none directly target autoantibodies. Late last year, Merida kicked off a Phase 1 safety and dosing trial of MER511 in people with Graves disease, with the study drug being administered alongside anti-thyroid medications.
“We're building our pipeline around therapies that meaningfully change the course of disease, not just its downstream effects,” said Francisco Ramírez-Valle, the head of Lilly’s immunology research and early clinical development. “Merida's lead program is designed to do exactly that: selectively and directly eliminating the autoantibodies causing Graves' disease and thyroid eye disease, while preserving normal immune function.”
Merida launched in April 2025 with a $121 million Series A round led by Bain Capital Life Sciences, BVF Partners and Third Rock Ventures.
