Eli Lilly and Co will acquire Morphic at $57 per share, which is headquartered in Waltham, Massachusetts. Eli Lilly has made a lot of investment in this field to provide first-class molecular drugs. The $100-$300 million products generated revenues of 401/1288/60 million yuan respectively.
On Monday local time,$Eli Lilly and Co (LLY.US)$the company announced it is acquiring the U.S. biopharmaceutical company for approximately $3.2 billion to obtain experimental therapies for the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and other chronic diseases. In pre-market trading, Morphic's stock price surged more than 75%, while Eli Lilly rose 0.3%.$Morphic (MORF.US)$to obtain experimental therapy for the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and other chronic diseases. In pre-market trading, Morphic's stock price surged more than 75%, while Eli Lilly and Co rose slightly by 0.3%.
The two companies announced that Eli Lilly will acquire Morphic for $57 per share, a price that is 79% higher than Friday's closing price. Morphic is headquartered in Waltham, Massachusetts.
According to the agreement, Eli Lilly will initiate a tender offer to acquire all outstanding shares of Morphic. After the tender offer closes, Eli Lilly will acquire any remaining Morphic shares that were not purchased in the tender offer, for the same price, a total of approximately $3.2 billion.
This transaction has been approved by the boards of directors of both companies and is not subject to any financing conditions. It is expected to be completed in the third quarter of 2024.
Morphic's investigational drug MORF-057 is an orally administered small molecule α4β7 integrin inhibitor for the treatment of moderate to severe ulcerative colitis. The molecule is undergoing two phase 2 studies for the treatment of ulcerative colitis and one phase 2 study for the treatment of Crohn's disease.
Ulcerative colitis is a disease that causes chronic inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract and is a type of inflammatory bowel disease. Patients may experience symptoms such as diarrhea, abdominal pain, bloody stool, rectal bleeding, weight loss, and fatigue. It is estimated that there are millions of people with ulcerative colitis, which severely affects their quality of life.
Last year, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Eli Lilly's Omvoh for the treatment of ulcerative colitis in adult patients, which is one of Eli Lilly's most promising drugs besides Mounjaro and Zepbound.
In addition, Morphic is developing other molecules in its preclinical pipeline for the treatment of autoimmune diseases, pulmonary arterial hypertension, fibrosis, and cancer.
Dr. Daniel Skovronsky, Chief Scientific Officer of Eli Lilly, said, "Oral therapy may provide new possibilities for early intervention in diseases such as ulcerative colitis, and may also provide potential for combination therapy to help patients with more severe diseases."
Skovronsky added, "We welcome our colleagues from Morphic to Eli Lilly because this strategic transaction strengthens our commitment to developing new therapies in gastroenterology. Eli Lilly has made a lot of investment in this field to provide first-class molecular drugs, which will benefit patients."
Praveen Tipirneni, CEO of Morphic, claimed that the company believes its MORF-057 drug has great potential in the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease and that working with Eli Lilly can further optimize this potential. Under the leadership of Eli Lilly, they are looking forward to the future of MORF-057 and other integrin drugs.
In addition to Eli Lilly, pharmaceutical giants such as Roche and Merck are also laying out in the field of inflammatory bowel disease. Last year, Roche announced it is acquiring Roivant Sciences' TL1A antibody RVT-3101 for $7 billion, while Merck is acquiring Prometheus Biosciences for $10.8 billion to obtain its core pipeline TL1A antibody PRA023.
Editor/new