Eli Lilly will acquire Curevo to expand the company’s research and development efforts into infectious disease. Infectious diseases remain a major source of global morbidity, both in their acute presentation and in the downstream health consequences of primary infection.

Curevo’s lead product candidate, amezosvatein, is an adjuvanted subunit vaccine for the prevention of shingles in adults. While the current standard of care for shingles prevention is effective, tolerability challenges can limit the overall vaccination rates and contribute to second-dose hesitancy, leaving a meaningful portion of patients with reduced or no protection against shingles and its long-term consequences.

Amezosvatein was engineered with a next-generation synthetic adjuvant to overcome this problem. In a phase 2 clinical trial head-to-head against the standard of care, amezosvatein matched immune response across all primary endpoints and reduced side effects such as activity-limiting fatigue, chills and pain at the injection site by more than half.

Given growing evidence linking shingles to elevated risk of stroke, and that shingles vaccination is associated with reduced dementia risk, a meaningfully better-tolerated vaccine could expand the reach of shingles prevention and reduce these long-term risks at a population level.

Lilly will also acquire LimmaTech Biologics and Vaccine Company to expand its research and development efforts into infectious disease.

LimmaTech is developing vaccines against bacterial pathogens for which rising antimicrobial resistance is steadily closing therapeutic options, including Staphylococcus aureus, Neisseria gonorrhoeae and chlamydia trachomatis. Lilly will acquire LimmaTech for up to $780m.

LimmaTech’s lead programme, LTB-SA7, is in phase 1 development as a vaccine against S. aureus, the leading cause of surgical-site infection. The company’s preclinical pipeline is pursuing additional bacterial pathogens, including those that drive infertility and other long-term consequences of infection that fall disproportionately on women. A vaccine-led prevention strategy could change the trajectory of diseases that are becoming increasingly difficult to treat.

Vaccine Company is advancing a broad preclinical pipeline spanning multiple viral pathogens; the lead programme applies this technology to Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV) with a five-antigen phase 1-ready candidate. Given the growing evidence linking EBV to multiple sclerosis and several malignancies, a prophylactic vaccine could prevent not only acute infectious mononucleosis but also the long-term neurological and oncological consequences that may follow infection. Lilly will acquire Vaccine Company for up to $1.55bn.