Key Summary
- Eli Lilly plans to buy Centessa Pharmaceuticals in a £6bn deal.
- The move focuses on new treatments for sleep disorders like narcolepsy and daytime sleepiness.
- It’s part of Lilly’s push to expand beyond weight-loss drugs and grow its pipeline.
Eli Lilly has announced that it would acquire UK-based Cantessa Pharmaceuticals for around £6 billion to develop its portfolio of treatments for sleep-wake disorders.
Centessa is a clinical-stage company developing a new class of medicines for the treatment of excessive daytime sleepiness and other neurological conditions.
The UK biotech firm is advancing a pipeline of orexin receptor 2 (OX2R) agonists designed to address the neurobiological system critical to the sleep-wake cycle to treat excessive daytime sleepiness and disorders of impaired wakefulness.
Centessa’s lead investigational candidate cleminorexton (formerly ORX750) has demonstrated a potential best-in-class profile in Phase 2a clinical studies across narcolepsy type 1, narcolepsy type 2, and idiopathic hypersomnia.
The transaction is expected to close in the third quarter, subject to approval by Centessa shareholders.
"Orexin receptor biology represents one of the most compelling mechanistic opportunities in neuroscience as a direct intervention on the master switch of the sleep-wake cycle. Centessa has assembled a portfolio with the breadth and depth to improve wakefulness across a broad array of indications," said Carole Ho, executive vice president and president, Lilly Neuroscience.
Indianapolis-based Lilly has recently made multiple deals as it looks to diversify its portfolio beyond weight-loss treatments.
In January, it had acquired Germany-based Seamless Therapeutics for hearing loss treatments, Ventyx Biosciences in San Diego for oral therapies for inflammation treatment, Adverum Biotechnologies in California for age-related vision loss treatment, etc., are other companies in Eli Lilly’s acquisition list.
