Eli Lilly and Company has announced that it is purchasing Ajax Therapeutics, which includes the acquisition of an orally-bioavailable Type II JAK2 inhibitor candidate, AJI-11095, to treat patients with myelofibrosis and polycythemia vera.
The investigative, once-daily, oral, first-in-class Type II JAK2 inhibitor is the lead program at Ajax. It uses a unique mode of binding, a characteristic that may enable deeper and more durable disease control than current therapies. In the phase 1 AJX-101 trial, the company is testing the drug on patients with myelofibrosis who have previously received treatment with a Type 1 JAK2. Proof-of-concept clinical data should become available later this year.
The acquisition of Ajax is the third deal Lilly has entered into recently. It is also purchasing Kelonia Therapeutics to expand its CAR-T cell therapy capabilities and CrossBridge Bio for the company’s next-generation dual-payload antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs).