Abivax shares soar on rumoured €15bn bid from Eli Lilly

12th Jan 2026 10:10

(Sharecast News) - Shares in Nasdaq-listed Abivax soared in pre-market trading on Monday after reports emerged that pharma giant Eli Lilly was preparing a $17.5bn bid for the Paris-based biotech firm.

According to French publication La Lettre, Indiana-based Eli Lilly is considering making a €15bn offer for the company, though is waiting to see whether French regulators would raised any issues with foreign investment.

According to a Bloomberg News interview at the JPMorgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco, which kicks off on Monday, Abivax's chief executive Marc de Garidel said that the company's flagship inflammatory bowel disease treatment, obefazimod, could become "one of the most-used products in the next decade".

Obefazimod is a first-in-class, once-daily oral treatment for treating moderate-to-severe ulcerative colitis, by enhancing the expression of microRNA-124, a natural regulator of the inflammatory response, according to Abivax.

"We are concentrating on developing this drug, bring it to the market," de Garidel said in another interview with BiotechTV. "That's all that matters. The rumours, speculations, we have no control over those."

US-listed Abivax futures were up 30.7% at $114.40 by 1148 GMT, while the stock gained 28.3% to €127 in Paris.