Eli Lil­ly is mak­ing a $1.8B leap in­to the mR­NA field, tar­get­ing next-gen can­cer vac­cines

Eli Lil­ly is div­ing in­to the mes­sen­ger RNA are­na, sign­ing off on a heav­i­ly back-end­ed $1.8 bil­lion deal with Ger­many’s Cure­Vac to de­vel­op up to 5 new-wave can­cer vac­cines.

Cure­Vac is get­ting $100 mil­lion in cash to kick off the col­lab­o­ra­tion, split be­tween an up­front pay­ment and eq­ui­ty stake. Then there’s a pack­age of $1.7 bil­lion in mile­stones on the ta­ble.

In turn Cure­Vac will be tasked with de­sign­ing a slate of new can­cer vac­cines that us­es mR­NA tech to in­struct the hu­man im­mune sys­tem to tar­get a spe­cif­ic set of neoanti­gens. While past can­cer vac­cines have gen­er­al­ly proven to be in­ef­fec­tive though safe, a num­ber of de­vel­op­ers have been hunt­ing down spe­cif­ic pa­tient anti­gens that can be lever­aged for much more pre­cise tar­get­ing — with a greater like­li­hood of suc­cess.

Unlock this article instantly by becoming a free subscriber.

You’ll get access to free articles each month, plus you can customize what newsletters get delivered to your inbox each week, including breaking news.

SIGN UP LOG IN BECOME A PREMIUM SUBSCRIBER