Eli Lilly’s run of near-weekly acquisitions still shows no sign of letting up, with the Big Pharma now buying Ajax Therapeutics for its clinical-stage myelofibrosis therapy.
At the center of the deal is a Type II JAK2 inhibitor dubbed AJ1-11095. Ajax launched a phase 1 study of the asset in 2024 for patients with the rare blood cancer who have already tried a Type I JAK2 inhibitor.
JAK2 inhibitors approved for myelofibrosis—like Novartis and Incyte’s Jakavi and Bristol Myers Squibb’s Inrebic—bind the Type I confirmation of JAK2. While these drugs can reduce spleen size and provide symptomatic improvement, they have little effect on the underlying cause of disease, Ajax has previously argued.
The hope is that by binding the Type 2 confirmation, AJ1-11095 will not only “deliver deeper and more durable efficacy than existing JAK2 inhibitors but also to provide a novel treatment option for those patients who become resistant to Type I JAK2 inhibitors,” Lilly explained in an April 27 release.
Ajax arrived at the American Society of Hematology annual meeting last December armed with preclinical data that appeared to support this belief. The biotech claimed the findings showed the “superior efficacy profile” of AJ1‑11095 when compared to Jakafi in models of myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPNs), which include myelofibrosis and polycythemia vera.
To get its hands on both Ajax and AJ1‑11095, Lilly has signed a deal that could reach $2.3 billion across both an upfront payment and potential clinical and regulatory milestones. However, the pharma didn’t divulge a breakdown of the financials.
Lilly is no stranger to JAK inhibitors, marketing Olumiant—which was developed by Incyte—globally for rheumatoid arthritis and severe alopecia areata.
Lilly Oncology President Jacob Van Naarden described the pharma as a “founding strategic investor” in Ajax, with Lilly having participated in a $95 million series C round in 2024 alongside the likes of Goldman Sachs Alternatives and RA Capital Management.
“Lilly has long believed in the approach and is excited about the potential for AJ1-11095 to deliver deeper and more durable efficacy than available treatments with a tolerability profile that would allow for patients to remain on therapy longer and be used across both the first- and second-line settings,” Van Naarden said in the release.
“We look forward to the presentation of clinical proof-of-concept data later in 2026, rapidly advancing AJ1-11095 into registrational clinical trials, and using our expertise in blood cancer to hopefully deliver another important new medicine to patients and hematologists,” he added.
Ajax was created as a collaboration with Schrödinger to take forward research from the lab of Ross Levine, M.D., who as well as being one of the biotech’s five scientific founders and chair of Ajax’s scientific advisory board is chief scientific officer at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. The partnership with Schrödinger means scientists from both companies work as an integrated team.
“With a small but highly motivated team, we have successfully applied this work to the design and development of our highly selective, first-in-class Type II JAK2 inhibitor, AJ1-11095,” Ajax CEO Martin Vogelbaum said in the release. “We now look forward to Lilly advancing AJ1-11095 through the clinic and providing a much-needed new therapy for patients with [myeloproliferative neoplasms].”
Buoyed with Mounjaro cash, Lilly has been on a deal-making spree that has included buying gene editing partner Verve Therapeutics for $1 billion upfront, inflammation biotech Ventyx for $1.2 billion upfront, and in vivo CAR-T company Kelonia Therapeutics in a $3.2 billion upfront deal, to name just a few.
