Lilly eyes more cancer deals, but wary of CAR-T, gene therapy

Lilly Chief Executive Dave Ricks told Reuters that as the company looks for deals to enhance its pipeline of future treatments it will leave CAR-T therapies for cancer and gene therapy for rare diseases to others, for now. “The data is amazing, but practically, it’s not reaching many people,” Ricks said of CAR-T therapy, which involves extracting disease-fighting T-cells from a patient, re-engineering them to better recognize and attack cancer, and reinfusing them into the body. Lilly on Monday said it would buy Loxo, which specializes in targeted cancer therapies, in the largest acquisition in the Indianapolis-based drugmaker’s 143-year history.