Lilly wheels and deals, Moderna gets boost on hantavirus scare, ASCO excitement builds

About this episode

The episode discusses Eli Lilly's recent acquisitions, Moderna's response to hantavirus concerns, and upcoming highlights from the ASCO conference.

Eli Lilly has been as acquisitive as ever, striking five new deals in the past week alone. On Tuesday, the company dove into the deep end of vaccine development with three separate buys in the space. Outside of vaccines, Lilly scooped up preclinical biotech Engage Bio for $202 million and teamed up with AI company Collaborative Drug Discovery for its life sciences data management solutions. These deals and Lilly’s skyrocketing revenue pushed the Indianapolis-based company to the top of IDEA Pharma’s list of best inventors and innovators. Lilly also continues to make headlines for its impressive data readouts, especially in the weight-loss space that it now reigns supreme. Last week, Lilly announced that next-gen asset retatrutide led to weight loss of 70 pounds, or 28.3% at 80 weeks, setting a new benchmark for the space. Moderna also made news this week with a surprising uptick in its share price that analysts are attributing to the so-called “fear trade” that is rising amid reports of a cluster of cases of hantavirus. Moderna also announced that its mRNA flu shot—initially turned away from the FDA but later accepted for review—will be discussed at an advisory committee on June…

Topics covered

• pharmaceutical acquisitions
• vaccine development
• weight loss treatments
• hantavirus
• clinical trials
• ASCO conference

Keywords

• Eli Lilly
• Moderna
• retatrutide
• hantavirus
• ASCO
• vaccine development
• biotech acquisitions

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Eli Lilly, Engage Bio, Collaborative Drug Discovery, Moderna, American Society of Clinical Oncology

Products: retatrutide, mRNA flu shot

Places: Chicago

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