Months after reports first linked Curium to a potential Lantheus takeover, the radiopharma players have made it official with a deal worth up to $8 billion.
Curium has agreed to buy all outstanding Lantheus shares for $102.50 apiece in cash at closing. Shareholders could receive up to another $12 per share through contingent value rights tied to sales milestones for Lantheus’ prostate cancer, neurology and Definity franchises through 2030.
The companies expect to close the transaction in the first half of 2027, subject to approval from Lantheus shareholders and regulators. If the deal is completed, Lantheus will become a privately held company.
In May, Lantheus was reportedly considering a Curium proposal that valued the Massachusetts company at roughly $7 billion. At the time, both companies declined to comment on the takeover chatter.
The tie-up would unite Curium’s global manufacturing network and theranostics pipeline with Lantheus’ sizable U.S. radiodiagnostics business. The combined company would operate across the nuclear medicine supply chain, from isotope production and manufacturing to diagnostic imaging and targeted radionuclide therapy.
Curium said the merged operation would serve patients in oncology, neurology and cardiology across more than 70 countries. The privately held company, which is controlled by investment firm CapVest Partners, employs more than 3,800 people and operates over 80 manufacturing sites worldwide.
Lantheus brings several established products to the table, led by prostate cancer PET imaging agent Pylarify. Its portfolio also includes the cardiac ultrasound enhancing agent Definity and beta-amyloid PET imaging agent Neuraceq.
The company generated $377.3 million in worldwide revenue during the first quarter of 2026, with those three products providing much of the haul. Lantheus is scheduled to release second-quarter results Aug. 6 but will skip its accompanying conference call and suspend its 2026 guidance because of the pending transaction.
Lantheus has spent the past several years broadening its presence in radiopharmaceuticals through a string of deals. In 2025, it agreed to pay $250 million upfront to acquire Evergreen Theragnostics, gaining a radiopharma development operation, manufacturing infrastructure and a pipeline that included the neuroendocrine tumor diagnostic Octevy. The deal carried up to $752.5 million in additional milestone payments.
Lantheus acquired Meilleur Technologies in 2024 and Life Molecular Imaging in 2025 as it built up its Alzheimer’s imaging portfolio.
Lantheus has faced some recent pipeline turbulence. In June, the FDA declined to approve its application for the neuroendocrine tumor imaging kit LNTH-2501 because of unresolved manufacturing conditions at a third-party facility. The agency did not raise concerns about the candidate’s safety, efficacy or supporting clinical data.
Last year, Lantheus and its partner Eli Lilly abandoned plans to pursue an FDA approval for their potential PSMA-directed therapeutic challenger to Novartis’ blockbuster Pluvicto following an unfavorable overall survival readout from a phase 3 trial in metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer.