Lilly makes its Point in radiopharmaceuticals

Lilly, riding high on successes in obesity and Alzheimer’s, has made its first foray into radiopharmaceuticals, today buying Point Biopharma for $1.4bn. Notably, Lilly’s move comes ahead of the big readout for Point’s lead asset, PNT2002; results from the phase 3 Splash trial in pre-chemo castration-resistant prostate cancer are due in the fourth quarter. This is the same setting in which Novartis’s Pluvicto was tested in the PSMAfore study, results from which were recently confirmed as a late-breaker to be presented at the upcoming ESMO meeting. Pluvicto is already approved post-chemo; however, Novartis has been hit with manufacturing problems that Lilly will no doubt hope to capitalise on. Lilly has been investing heavily recently, this year acquiring the autoimmune disease player Dice for $2.4bn, and striking smaller deals in diabetes cell therapy and gene editing. In oncology Lilly bought the ADC developer Emergence Therapeutics in June; the group’s oncology division was formed by its $8bn purchase of Loxo in 2019.

Lilly’s acquisitions in 2023

Source: company releases.