Eli Lil­ly of­fers $400M-plus deal to bag an ear­ly-stage au­toim­mune drug from Nek­tar

With lit­tle more than pre­clin­i­cal da­ta and some ini­tial dos­ing co­hort in­sights avail­able for re­view, Eli Lil­ly is mak­ing a $400 mil­lion-plus play to buy in­to an ear­ly-stage au­toim­mune drug at Nek­tar $NK­TR that the phar­ma gi­ant be­lieves has megablock­buster po­ten­tial.

Eli Lil­ly $LLY has agreed to ac­quire co-de­vel­op­ment rights on NK­TR-358 — which was first dosed in a hu­man in a Phase I study 4 months ago — for $150 mil­lion up front plus $250 mil­lion in mile­stones. Lil­ly will pick up 75% of the Phase II de­vel­op­ment costs and Nek­tar will have the opt-in rights on this drug on an in­di­ca­tion-by-in­di­ca­tion ba­sis.

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