Lilly to Buy Centessa Pharmaceuticals for $6.3B
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- Eli Lilly announced a deal to acquire Centessa Pharmaceuticals for roughly $6.3 billion in cash, the company said Tuesday.
- The purchase values Centessa at $38 per share — a 38% premium over Monday's closing price and a 40.5% premium over its 30-day average share price.
- Contingent value rights tied to U.S. regulatory approval could add another $1.5 billion, pushing the total price to up to $47 per share — meaning Lilly's total spend could reach roughly $7.8 billion.
- Centessa Pharmaceuticals, headquartered in the U.K. and Boston, was publicly launched in 2021 and originally ran more than a dozen programs across multiple disease areas before narrowing its pipeline.
- The biotech has since concentrated on drugs for disorders that leave people struggling to stay awake — the therapeutic area driving Lilly's acquisition interest.
Why it matters: The $1.5 billion in contingent payments reveals how Lilly structured the deal: $38 per share is guaranteed, but the remaining $9-per-share upside depends entirely on U.S. regulatory approval of Centessa's wakefulness-disorder drug — effectively pricing in FDA risk rather than guaranteeing full value up front.
