Eli Lilly has announced plans to acquire Merida Biosciences, a biotechnology company advancing a new class of precision therapeutics for serious autoimmune and allergic diseases. 

Merida is developing biologics engineered to selectively degrade pathogenic autoantibodies, the disease-causing agents behind a range of immune-mediated conditions.  

The precision degradation approach is intended to address the biological cause of these diseases, rather than broadly suppressing the immune system, as many current therapies do. 

Merida’s lead programme, MER511, is in Phase I development for Graves’ disease and thyroid eye disease (TED), conditions driven by thyroid-stimulating immunoglobulins, autoantibodies that activate the thyroid-stimulating hormone receptor.  

While there are approved treatments for both conditions, none directly target the autoantibodies that cause them. Because pathogenic autoantibodies drive a wide range of serious diseases, Merida’s platform has potential application well beyond its lead programme.  

The company’s pipeline also includes MER769, a preclinical programme focused on food allergy, asthma, chronic spontaneous urticaria and other diseases driven by the antibody responsible for triggering allergic reactions, along with earlier-stage programmes in kidney diseases such as membranous nephropathy and other immune-mediated conditions. 

“We’re building our pipeline around therapies that meaningfully change the course of disease, not just its downstream effects. Merida’s lead programme is designed to do exactly that: selectively and directly eliminating the autoantibodies causing Graves’ disease and thyroid eye disease, while preserving normal immune function, with initial Phase I data already pointing to the potential for improved efficacy and safety,” said Dr Francisco Ramírez-Valle, Senior Vice President, Lilly Immunology Research and Early Clinical Development. “We see potential to apply this precision approach across a broad range of antibody-driven diseases, and we look forward to advancing this novel technology working with the Merida team.” 

Under the terms of the agreement, Lilly will pay up to $2.875 billion in cash, inclusive of an upfront payment and contingent milestone payments.