Eli Lilly and Co. on Monday announced it plans to acquire Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Merida Biosciences Inc. for up to $2.8 billion in cash.

Merida is a four-year-old biotechnology company advancing a new class of precision therapeutics for serious autoimmune and allergic diseases. It is developing biologics engineered to selectively degrade pathogenic autoantibodies, the disease-causing agents behind a range of immune-mediated conditions.

The precision degradation approach is intended to address the biological cause of the diseases rather than broadly suppressing the immune system, as many current therapies do.

Its lead program, MER511, is in phase 1 development for Graves’ disease and thyroid eye disease, which are driven by thyroid-stimulating immunoglobulins – autoantibodies that activate the thyroid-stimulating hormone receptor.

Graves’ disease affects about 3 million people in the U.S. Those patients face elevated cardiovascular risk and mortality.

About 25% to 40% of people who have Graves’ disease go on to develop thyroid eye disease, which can cause pain, disfigurement and, in severe cases, vision loss.

There are approved treatments for both conditions, but none directly target the autoantibodies that cause them.

Lilly said Merida’s platform has potential application well beyond the lead program. Its pipeline also includes MER769, a preclinical program focused on food allergy, asthma, chronic spontaneous urticaria and other diseases driven by the antibody responsible for triggering allergic reactions.

“We’re building our pipeline around therapies that meaningfully change the course of disease, not just its downstream effects,” said Dr. Francisco Ramírez-Valle, senior vice president for Lilly immunology research and early clinical development. “Merida’s lead program is designed to do exactly that: selectively and directly eliminating the autoantibodies causing Graves’ disease and thyroid eye disease, while preserving normal immune function, with initial Phase 1 data already pointing to the potential for improved efficacy and safety.”

Under the terms of the agreement, Lilly will acquire Merida and pay up to $2.875 billion in cash, inclusive of an upfront payment, and contingent milestone payments.

The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions, including regulatory approvals, and is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2026

Lilly this year has been on an acquiring spree, fueled by the successes of its blockbuster GLP-1 medications.

Recently, Lilly has announced other major acquisitions. They include:

• In May, the company announced that it had agreed to acquire three vaccine developers in deals worth nearly $4 billion. The purchase included Curevo Inc., LimmaTech Biologics AG and Vaccine Co. Inc.

• In April, Lilly agreed to acquire cancer-drug developer Ajax Therapeutics for up to $2.3 billion. Ajax’s lead drug candidate, AJ1-11095, is an experimental once-daily oral treatment for patients with myeloproliferative neoplasms, such as myelofibrosis, a chronic form of blood cancer in which scar tissue forms in the bone marrow, and polycythemia vera, a slow-growing blood cancer where bone marrow overproduces red blood cells.

• Also in April, Lilly announced an agreement to acquire Boston-based biotech firm Kelonia Therapeutics in a deal worth up to $7 billion. Kelonia is developing several medicines that use the company’s own in vivo gene-proprietary system called iGPS that uses specially engineered particles that enter T-cells in the body. Doing so allows the patient’s own body to generate chimeric antigen receptor T-cell, or CAR-T, therapies that can treat underlying disease, Lilly said. And Lilly announced another deal in April to acquire Houston-based CrossBridge Bio for $300 million. CrossBridge focuses on oncology and antibody-drug conjugates.

• In late March, Lilly agreed to pay up to $7.8 billion to acquire England-based Centessa Pharmaceuticals which is focused on developing treatments for narcolepsy and other neurologic conditions.

• In February, Lilly said it would pay up to $2.4 billion to buy Watertown, Massachusetts-based Orna Therapeutics, a biotech company that is developing a technology that helps a patient’s cells generate therapies inside the body.