In Precision Oncology, Smart Alliances Are Beating Big Buys

Lilly’s stake in Aktis’s planned IPO shows how oncology partnerships are reshaping innovation by blending science, capital, and caution

14 Jan 2026

A shift is under way in US cancer drug development as large pharmaceutical groups rely less on big acquisitions and more on targeted partnerships to advance new therapies. The growing relationship between Aktis Oncology and Eli Lilly highlights how collaboration is becoming a central tool in precision cancer care.

Lilly’s decision to act as an anchor investor in Aktis Oncology’s planned 2026 initial public offering builds on a research and development partnership announced in May 2024. The move signals confidence in Aktis’s tumour-targeting technology and shows how capital markets activity can deepen earlier scientific ties.

For an industry facing rising development costs and intense competition for promising assets, such partnerships offer a way to move faster without the risks of full ownership. Drugmakers can secure access to early-stage innovation while keeping financial exposure in check until clinical data is clearer.

Aktis Oncology is working on methods to deliver cancer treatments directly to tumours, with the aim of improving efficacy while limiting harm to healthy tissue. This approach fits with a broader push in oncology towards precision therapies, including antibody drug conjugates, which link powerful drugs to targeting mechanisms that home in on cancer cells. Although Aktis is pursuing its own technology, it sits firmly within one of the sector’s fastest-growing areas.

For Lilly, the arrangement provides flexibility. Rather than committing to an outright takeover, the company can stay close to a potentially valuable platform and share both scientific and commercial risk. Analysts say such structures allow large drugmakers to monitor emerging technologies without locking in capital before pivotal trial results.

The Aktis deal reflects a wider recalibration in oncology. After a decade marked by large mergers and acquisitions, companies are increasingly favouring partnerships, especially at earlier stages of development. Supporters argue this helps preserve a diverse innovation ecosystem and avoids the operational challenges that often follow major takeovers.

The model is not without obstacles. Precision cancer technologies can be difficult to manufacture, face close scrutiny from US regulators and require careful management of intellectual property and long-term incentives between partners.

Even so, as cancer treatment becomes more personalised, industry executives expect partnerships like the one between Aktis Oncology and Eli Lilly to become more common. Future advances may come less from blockbuster deals and more from carefully structured collaborations.