Drug maker Eli Lilly and Company said Monday it had struck a deal to buy a biotech start-up that's developing an imaging agent that could help diagnose Alzheimer's disease.

Indianapolis, Ind.-based Eli Lilly said it plans to buy Avid Radiopharmaceuticals with an upfront payment of $300 million, and then $500 million contingent upon regulatory and commercial milestones for the imaging agent, called florbetapir F 18.

Six-year-old Avid's employees will remain in their Philadelphia headquarters after the purchase, Eli Lilly said, under the guidance of founder Dr. Daniel M. Skovronsky, a neuropathologist who trained at the University of Pennsylvania.

Florbetapir F18 is currently in clinical trials to see how well it enables PET scans to pick up beta-amyloid plaque deposits in living patients, in order to give earlier, more definitive, Alzheimer's diagnoses.

Florbetapir is one of a handful of radiopharmaceuticals under investigation to improve Alzheimer's diagnoses. Bayer HealthCare is researching florabetaben, and GE Healtchare is looking into GE-067.

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