Avid Radiopharmaceuticals

Pharma

Eli Lilly to pay up to $800M for Alzheimer’s tracing agent maker

Indianapolis drug maker Eli Lilly & Co. (NYSE:LLY) has agreed to pay up to $800 million for Avid Radiopharmaceuticals, the Philadelphia developer of a tracing agent that can help diagnose Alzheimer's disease. The tracing agent, florbetapir F 18 -- which last week topped the Cleveland Clinic's Top 10 Medical Innovations list for 2011 -- is coupled with a PET scan to allow doctors to see inside patients' brains to detect beta-amyloid plaques, the tell-tale signature of Alzheimer's.