Eli Lilly’s acquisition spree shows no sign of stalling, although the Big Pharma is keeping the terms of its latest buy pretty vague.
This time, Lilly has returned to antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs), scooping up Houston, Texas-based CrossBridge Bio and its pipeline of preclinical dual-payload therapies. CrossBridge’s lead TROP2-targeting TOP1i/ATRi treatment, dubbed CBB-120, is expected to enter the clinic this year for patients with solid tumors, according to an April 14 release.
The potential value of the deal comes to $300 million, although Lilly wouldn’t disclose to Fierce how this money splits out between upfront cash and a later potential payment tied to a specific milestone.
CrossBridge launched in 2023 with the aim of addressing a range of cancer indications via next-generation ADCs. The company originated from ADC tech developed at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. A $10 million seed funding round in 2024 was led by TMC Venture Fund and CE-Ventures, while the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas awarded CrossBridge a grant of $15 million last year.
The biotech has previously touted its linker tech as offering greater stability and the ability to attach multiple payloads. Its pipeline is headed up by CBB-120, which is designed to improve on existing TROP2-targeting therapies—of which both Gilead’s Trodelvy and AstraZeneca and Daiichi Sankyo’s Datroway are approved examples. TROP2 is a protein expressed in many epithelial tumors, including those found in triple-negative breast, colorectal, pancreatic, prostate, gastric, ovarian and non-small cell lung cancers.
CrossBridge CEO Michael Torres said the biotech “looks forward” to how Lilly will advance the company’s assets.
“At CrossBridge Bio, we believe our dual-payload ADC platform is uniquely positioned to be transformative in oncology,” Torres said in the release. “I’m proud of how well our team has executed and advanced our platform in such a short time since the company’s founding.”
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Like many of its Big Pharma peers, Lilly has long been interested in ADCs, though it has taken a cautious approach. In 2023, Lilly’s oncology R&D president, Jacob Van Naarden, told Fierce that enthusiasm for ADCs might be overblown: “We as a field have a tendency to sort of see shiny new objects and then assume there’s going to be a zillion more shiny new objects in the same class. And I actually think historically, that’s not been true.”
That caution didn’t stop Lilly from picking up European ADC startups Emergence Therapeutics and Mablink Bioscience in quick succession in 2024. The CrossBridge deal would further expand Lilly’s ADC portfolio.
According to PitchBook data shared with Fierce, Lilly had acquired 17 biotech companies prior to the CrossBridge deal since December 2022, including three billion-dollar-plus deals so far in 2026. In January, the pharma bought inflammation biotech Ventyx for over $1 billion following positive Parkinson’s disease and cardiovascular data. In February, Lilly acquired Orna in a deal worth well over $2 billion to enter the in vivo CAR-T space, and the following month the drugmaker acquired Centessa for north of $6 billion to expand its sleep disorder portfolio.
Lilly has also been advancing its internal ADC pipeline. The company received breakthrough therapy designation for its folate receptor alpha ADC, sofetabart mipitecan, for patients with platinum-resistant epithelial ovarian, fallopian tube or primary peritoneal cancer. Its website also lists three additional ADCs currently in phase 2.
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Lilly is not alone in pursuing additional ADC assets. Just last week, Gilead paid $3.1 billion upfront for Tubulis, while Boehringer Ingelheim’s innovation chief Paola Casarosa, Ph.D., told Fierce last month that ADCs are a key focus for the German drugmaker.
