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Eli Lilly is reported to be eyeing a $1 billion-plus takeover of Ventyx Biosciences that, if confirmed, suggests 2026 could follow the bumper pharma M&A trend that started last year.
A report in the Wall Street Journal, citing people familiar with the matter, suggests an announcement of a transaction could be made “imminently.” It comes as Amgen has just completed an $840 million acquisition of UK biotech Dark Blue Therapeutics, which is thought to be the first pharma M&A deal of 2026.
Shares in Ventyx – which has drugs in clinical trials for autoimmune, inflammatory, and neurodegenerative diseases – shot up nearly 58% in premarket trading after the rumour was published, taking its value well into unicorn territory.
The San Diego-based company’s lead programme is an oral inhibitor of the inflammatory mediator NLRP3, VTX2735, which is in a phase 2 trial involving patients with recurrent pericarditis. The rare condition, associated with inflammation of the fluid-filled membrane that surrounds the heart, affects around 40,000 people in the US.
An interim analysis from the trial is scheduled to take place at an R&D update that will be hosted by Ventyx in the first quarter of this year, but the company has already demonstrated anti-inflammatory proof of principle with VTX2735 in an early-stage trial in cryopyrin-associated periodic syndromes (CAPS), a rare genetic disease involving overactive NLRP.
The readout of the pericarditis trial has been slightly delayed, but only to allow the inclusion of a new once-daily formulation of the drug along with the original twice-daily version, according to an R&D update provided by Ventyx last month.
Meanwhile, its pipeline also includes an NLRP3 inhibitor that is able to cross the blood-brain barrier and is in mid-stage testing for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease, with positive biomarker data in hand, as well as obesity-associated cardiometabolic diseases.
The latter indication could dovetail with Lilly’s already-strong position in weight-loss therapies, pioneered by blockbuster injectable Zepbound/Mounjaro (tirzepatide) and oral orforglipron, which has been filed for approval in the US with a decision due within the next few weeks. This week, Lilly also agreed a second licensing deal for obesity candidates with Nimbus Therapeutics.
Ventyx’s other major R&D track is in inflammatory bowel diseases, headed by tamuzimod (VTX002), which it describes as a potential best-in-class S1P receptor modulator that could compete with marketed drugs in the class like Bristol Myers Squibb’s Zeposia (ozanimod) and Pfizer’s Velsipity (etrasimod).
Phase 2 results published in The Lancet last year in moderate-to-severe ulcerative colitis showed improvements in clinical and endoscopic remission rates compared to placebo, and it could complement Lilly’s emerging presence in IBD with products like IL-23p19 inhibitor Omvoh (mirikizumab), which was approved for UC in 2023 and Crohn’s disease last year.
Neither Lilly nor Ventyx have commented so far on the rumour.
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