Af­ter play­ing pos­sum in I/O, Eli Lil­ly shows new signs of life with $40M-plus cash dis­cov­ery deal for NextCure

Eli Lil­ly was es­sen­tial­ly a no-show in the ini­tial scram­ble to slice up a mas­sive, mega-block­buster mar­ket for im­muno-on­col­o­gy drugs. But they’ve been show­ing signs of life this year.

In the lat­est in a se­ries of I/O moves, Eli Lil­ly $LLY is pay­ing $40 mil­lion — $25 mil­lion in an up­front and $15 mil­lion for eq­ui­ty — to NextCure to get start­ed on a dis­cov­ery pro­gram for next-gen im­muno-on­col­o­gy drugs. 

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