Eli Lilly's Oncology Focus

On October 6, Eli Lilly & Co. became the latest pharmaceutical company to jump on the cancer bandwagon, with its $6.5 billion acquisition of ImClone Systems Inc.The deal gives Lilly the royalty stream to one marketed product-cetuximab (Erbitux), plus five additional clinical stage compounds, many of which are biologics. The problem is many of the candidate drugs face stiff competition--and the pharma has severely depleted its cash holdings to get the deal signed.