Eli Lilly’s acquisition of Loxo Oncology

Eli Lilly’s acqui­si­tion of Loxo Oncol­o­gy marks the sec­ond multi­bil­lion-dol­lar deal in 2019 fol­low­ing the recent BMS and Cel­gene merger.

“Eli Lilly’s choice of Loxo is high­ly strate­gic due to Loxo’s unique oncol­o­gy port­fo­lio as well as its poten­tial for quick return of invest­ment. To this end, Lil­ly will imme­di­ate­ly col­lect sales rev­enues from Loxo’s recent­ly brand­ed first-in-class tropomyosin recep­tor kinase (TRK) inhibitor Vit­rakvi (larotrec­tinib).

Vitrakvi’s strength comes from its first-to-mar­ket advan­tage, as well as its label, as it is approved based on the pres­ence of a bio­mark­er, neu­rotrop­ic recep­tor tyro­sine kinase (NTRK) fusion in tumors rather than loca­tion of the tumor. This means that the drug can be read­i­ly used in more than 17 dif­fer­ent types of advanced can­cers that are dri­ven by NTRK fusions.

Loxo’s fol­low up sec­ond gen­er­a­tion TRK inhibitor, LOXO-195, is designed to address the poten­tial acquired resis­tance that could emerge in patients receiv­ing Vit­rakvi. The two agents will there­fore allow Lil­ly to dom­i­nate the treat­ment par­a­digm in NTRK fusion dri­ven cancers.

A sec­ond gem in Loxo’s clin­i­cal pipeline is LOXO-292, an inhibitor of rearranged dur­ing trans­fec­tion (RET) kinase. Already grant­ed a break­through ther­a­py des­ig­na­tion in RET-fusion pos­i­tive NSCLC and RET–mutation pos­i­tive medullary thy­roid can­cer, LOXO-292 will soon be Lilly’s sec­ond brand inher­it­ed from Loxo. Sim­i­lar to Vit­rakvi, LOXO-292 is first in its class and is expect­ed to become the first brand­ed RET inhibitor.

Ulti­mate­ly, the deal will help Lil­ly replen­ish and diver­si­fy its oncol­o­gy port­fo­lio, which is los­ing ground due to the impend­ing patent expi­ra­tion and increas­ing mar­ket com­pe­ti­tion fac­ing its lead­ing oncol­o­gy brands Alim­ta, Cyra­mza, and Verzenio.”

Volkan Gun­duz, PhD, Senior Oncol­o­gy and Hema­tol­ogy Ana­lyst at GlobalData