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The partnership that would shape Eli Lilly into one of the biggest success stories in the pharmaceutical industry began with conversations around a relatively minor acquisition.

At the time, David Ricks was running Lilly’s U.S. business and was part of the team charged with evaluating Avid Radiopharmaceuticals, which Lilly would go on to purchase in 2010 for a paltry $300 million — couch change for a multibillion-dollar firm. But what struck Ricks was not the company’s technology, for imaging Alzheimer’s plaques, but Avid’s CEO, Daniel S. Skovronsky.

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“Dan’s different,” Ricks told STAT. “I had this sense immediately. Some people get in biotech for the cha-ching.” Skovronsky turned out to be a secret weapon. Within six months, Ricks had been promoted to run Lilly’s biomedicine unit and Skovronsky was working for him.

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