Pharma BD Deal Intelligence

Eli Lilly and Company / Centessa Pharmaceuticals plc

2026 · Acquisition/Merger · $7.8B · Complete

Outcome grade pending — assessed 5 years post-close.

Full analysis, sources & comparables →

The coverage arc

Mar 31, 2026 BioPharma Dive Bullish

Eli Lilly is spending $6.3 billion to buy London-based Centessa Pharmaceuticals, betting on a portfolio of neuroscience medicines that could be part of the…

Mar 31, 2026 STAT News Neutral

Eli Lilly agreed to buy Centessa Pharmaceuticals, the maker of an experimental drug meant to combat sleeping conditions, for roughly $6.3 billion in cash.…

May 07, 2026 Centessa DEFM14A merger proxy (SEC EDGAR) Neutral

Centessa definitive merger proxy (DEFM14A) for the Lilly acquisition. Per the company's May 22, 2026 8-K, the Hart-Scott-Rodino antitrust waiting period…

Source summaries from our enrichment pipeline; follow links for originals.

All 11 sources with sentiment breakdown →

Eli Lilly agreed to acquire Centessa Pharmaceuticals for $38/share (~$6.3B equity) plus up to $1.5B in CVR payments ($7.8B total), gaining OX2R agonist cleminorexton with Phase 2a best-in-class data across narcolepsy T1/T2 and idiopathic hypersomnia. Sell-side frames the orexin class as a $15-20B market opportunity. Structured as a UK scheme of arrangement; the deal has de-risked since announcement: the HSR antitrust waiting period expired May 21, 2026 and the English High Court cleared a scheme shareholder meeting for June 12, 2026, with court sanction still to follow. Still pending; expected close Q3 2026.

Key facts

Related deals — scored

DealYearValueOutcome
Eli Lilly and Company / Centessa Pharmaceuticals plc (this deal)2026$7.8B
Eli Lilly and Company / Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH2011$444M89
Eli Lilly and Company / Loxo Oncology, Inc.2019$8.0B88
Eli Lilly and Company / Applied Molecular Evolution Inc.2003$400M88
Eli Lilly and Company / ICOS Corporation2006$2.3B87
Eli Lilly and Company / Novartis Animal Health2014$5.4B70
Eli Lilly and Company / Incyte Corporation2009$755M69

Compare all 7 side-by-side →

See the full interactive analysis, sources & comparables →