Eli Lilly to acquire Loxo Oncology for $8 billion

Eli Lilly and Co will acquire Loxo Oncology Inc for about $8 billion in cash, making its biggest bet on a cancer therapy market expected to be worth several billions of dollars.

The cash deal comes on the heels of Bristol-Myers Squibb Co's agreement last week to buy Celgene Corp for $74 billion, and gives Lilly access to Loxo's portfolio of targeted medicines which treat cancers caused by rare gene mutations.

Anne White, President of Lilly Oncology, said, "We believe that Lilly will bring a great deal of strength to this partnership in addition to what Loxo has already done."

"The acquisition represents an exciting and immediate opportunity to expand the breadth of our portfolio into precision medicines and target cancers that are caused by specific gene abnormalities, and that the ability to target tumour dependencies in these populations is a key part of our strategy," she added.

David Ricks, Lilly's Chief Executive, stated, "We'd like to grow our presence in oncology. We have a good set of medicines there but we'd like to expand that because there's so much exciting science for patients emerging in oncology to invest in."