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Lilly Looks To Complement Mounjaro, Obesity Pipeline With Versanis Buyout

 
• By Joseph Haas

Deal brings Lilly a Phase II activin receptor-targeting antibody that could provide another tool in battling obesity. This is Lilly’s fourth M&A transaction since 20 June.

Indianapolis - Circa April 2016: Eli Lilly and Company World Headquarters. Lilly makes Medicines and Pharmaceuticals IV - Image
Lilly's agreement to buy Versanis is its fourth M&A deal in less than a month

Looking to catch up with Novo Nordisk A/S and stay competitive in the burgeoning obesity/weight-loss therapy space, Eli Lilly and Company agreed to pay up to $1.925bn on 14 July for privately held Versanis Bio bringing in a Phase II obesity candidate that could offer therapeutic synergy with Lilly’s Mounjaro (tirzepatide) and a pair of late-stage candidates in development by the Indianapolis pharma.

The deal, centered on Versanis’s bimagrumab, an antibody that binds the activin type II A and B receptors, is Lilly’s fourth M&A transaction in the past four weeks and, following...

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