Merida Bikes

Lilly's $2.9B deal adds treatments for Graves' disease and food allergies

Eli Lilly is acquiring Merida Biosciences for about $2.88 billion in cash, expanding its immunology and allergic-disease pipeline beyond its obesity drugs, with the deal expected to close in Q4 2026 and marking Lilly’s ongoing aggressive M&A strategy. Merida’s lead program MER511 targets Graves’ disease and thyroid eye disease, while MER769 is in preclinical development for food allergy, asthma and chronic spontaneous urticaria, underscoring a broadened portfolio as Lilly references roughly $29 billion in upfront and milestone payments this year across acquisitions.