Eli Lilly has entered into a multi-program collaboration with Beijing-based Haisco Pharmaceutical Group, committing an upfront payment of $87 million and exposing itself to up to $2.97 billion in potential milestone payments. The total value of the arrangement could climb to $3.05 billion, with additional single-digit tiered royalties tied to future product sales.
The agreement, centers on five early-stage programs spanning multiple therapeutic areas. However, neither Eli Lilly nor Haisco Pharmaceutical has disclosed the specific disease indications or therapeutic targets involved. Under the structure of the deal, certain programs will be exclusively licensed to Lilly for commercialization across worldwide markets, while others will remain under Haisco’s control in mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan. Haisco will lead discovery and identification work across all five programs, after which Lilly will take the reins to conduct studies necessary for investigational new drug applications. Lilly will also assume full responsibility for clinical development, regulatory submissions, and commercialization of the partnered assets.
The Lilly Haisco deal rounded out a notably active Monday in Asia for the Indianapolis-based pharmaceutical company. Earlier the same day, Lilly announced a separate collaboration with South Korea’s Hanmi Pharm, placing up to $1.2 billion behind a mid-stage GLP-2 agonist currently under evaluation for short bowel syndrome.
These two agreements are the latest additions to a growing string of business development moves by Eli Lilly in 2026. The company has channeled at least $29 billion in total deal value into acquisitions and alliances this year alone. Just the week prior, Lilly acquired three vaccine developers in a combined transaction valued at $3.8 billion, strengthening its infectious diseases pipeline. In April, the company made a $7 billion acquisition of Kelonia Therapeutics, targeting its in vivo gene delivery platform with an eye toward the CAR T therapy space. That move followed the $2.4 billion acquisition of Orna Therapeutics in February, which brought a preclinical portfolio of in vivo cell therapies into Lilly’s pipeline. With six acquisitions already completed in 2026 and a rapidly expanding roster of global partnerships, Eli Lilly’s business development activity continues at a sustained pace as the company deploys gains from its GLP-1 franchise into a broad range of therapeutic bets.
