Eli Lilly to Acquire CrossBridge Bio for Up to $300 Million

Eli Lilly and Company has entered a definitive agreement to acquire CrossBridge Bio, a company developing antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs), for up to $300 million in upfront and milestone payments.

The deal comes as Lilly expands its oncology pipeline through acquisitions alongside broader investments in artificial intelligence-driven drug discovery, including a recent collaboration with Insilico Medicine focused on machine learning-based development of new therapies.

Founded in 2023, CrossBridge Bio is advancing a dual-payload ADC platform designed to deliver two cancer therapies through a single antibody. Its lead program, CBB-120, targets TROP2, a protein commonly expressed in solid tumors including breast and lung cancer.

CBB-120 combines a Topoisomerase I inhibitor and an ATR inhibitor and is expected to enter clinical development, with an investigational new drug application planned for 2026. The platform was originally developed at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston.