Lilly Loading Up Vaccines Plate for Former CBER Head Marks
Eli Lilly says it is acquiring three vaccine developers in deals worth up to $3.8 billion combined, expanding its push into infectious disease prevention and underscoring a renewed emphasis on vaccines following the hiring of former FDA CBER director Peter Marks late last year. Financial analysts said the acquisitions of Curevo, LimmaTech Biologics and Vaccine Company signal Lilly’s intention to become a significant player in vaccines after Marks joined the company 10/2025 to lead its infectious disease efforts. The deals also reflect a broader strategy by Lilly to diversify beyond its blockbuster obesity and diabetes franchises.
“This looks like Lilly building a vaccine innovation platform,” analysts said, noting that the relatively modest size of the acquisitions makes the expansion financially manageable for the drugmaker, whose cash reserves have swelled amid booming demand for its weight-loss products.
“These acquisitions reflect a deliberate strategy to prevent disease at its source rather than treat its consequences,” Lilly chief scientific and product officer Daniel M. Skovronsky is quoted in a release as saying. "Decades of evidence now link common infections to diseases that potentially emerge years later, including neurological disease, cancer and infertility. And as antimicrobial resistance erodes our ability to treat bacterial infections, vaccines are increasingly the only path to prevention. Combining these companies' platforms and teams with Lilly's global scale positions us to change that trajectory."
Under the agreements, Curevo shareholders could receive up to $1.5 billion in cash, including upfront and milestone payments. The company’s lead asset, amezosvatein, is being developed as a vaccine for shingles, according to Lilly. LimmaTech could cost up to $780 million and includes its lead vaccine candidate, LTB-SA7, that targets Staphylococcus aureus, a major cause of surgical-site infections. Lilly says the Vaccine Company could cost up to $1.55 billion. It is developing a vaccine targeting Epstein-Barr virus, a widespread infection linked to several cancers and neurological disorders.
Marks joined Lilly six months after being forced to resign from FDA, which marked the beginning of an upheaval at CBER that saw numerous staff leave voluntarily or be directed elsewhere by HHS under reduction-in-force efforts mandated by the White House. In his resignation letter, Marks wrote that he had attempted to address HHS secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s concerns regarding vaccine safety and transparency but “it has become clear that truth and transparency are not desired by the secretary, but rather he wishes subservient confirmation of his misinformation and lies.”
At Lilly, Marks joined former CBER Office of Therapeutic Products (OTP) deputy director Rachael Anatol, who was hired a month earlier as associate VP, global regulatory policy and strategy — genetic medicine. In 6/2025, Anatol and OTP director Nicole Verdun were pushed out of the Center and placed on administrative leave (see earlier story). At the time, an HHS spokesperson hinted that the move was orchestrated by CBER director Vinay Prasad, telling FDA Webview that “Center directors deserve to be supported by managers that are aligned with aggressive goals to expeditiously advance therapeutics for rare diseases using the gold standard of science.”