Lilly to Acquire DICE Therapeutics for $2.4bn
Eli Lilly and Company and DICE Therapeutics, Inc. have signed a definitive agreement for Lilly to acquire DICE for approximately $2.4 billion, representing one of Lilly’s largest acquisitions to date.
The companies announced on the 20th of June, that Lilly is set to initiate a tender offer to acquire the entirety of DICE’s outstanding shares. The purchase price stands at $48 per share, with payment to be made in cash upon completion of the acquisition (an estimated aggregate sum of around $2.4 billion). The boards of directors of both Eli Lilly and Company and DICE Therapeutics, Inc. have given their approval to the transaction.
DICE is a biopharmaceutical company that leverages its proprietary DELSCAPE technology platform to develop novel oral therapeutic candidates, including oral IL-17 inhibitors currently in clinical development, to treat chronic diseases in immunology.
Patrik Jonsson, executive vice president, president of Lilly Immunology and Lilly USA, chief customer officer, said in the announcement:
“In combination with its novel technology and expertise in drug discovery, DICE’s talented workforce and passion for innovation will enhance our efforts to make life better for people living with devastating autoimmune diseases. We welcome DICE colleagues to Lilly and, together, we can tackle the challenges ahead in finding new treatments for patients with significant unmet medical needs.”
Kevin Judice, Ph.D., CEO of DICE Therapeutics, added:
“We’re eager to see our pipeline, including our oral IL-17 inhibitors, DC-806 and DC-853, benefit from Lilly’s resources and global reach and I’m excited by the prospect of watching these two talented teams in a united quest for scientific innovation. Our novel approach to discovering and advancing oral, small molecules against validated protein-protein interaction targets has even greater potential with Lilly’s industry-leading clinical development capabilities to get these medicines to patients suffering from autoimmune diseases.”
More about DICE Therapeutics, Inc
San Francisco-headquartered DICE Therapeutics, Inc., a dynamic biopharmaceutical company, that harnesses its exclusive technology platform to establish a robust pipeline of groundbreaking oral therapeutic candidates. These candidates are intended to address chronic diseases within the realm of immunology, as well as other therapeutic areas. Initially, DICE’s primary focus lies in the development of oral therapeutics targeting well-established and validated immunology targets. Their objective is to achieve comparable efficacy to the currently available systemic biologic treatments, which have demonstrated remarkable therapeutic benefits in these disease domains. DICE’s proprietary DELSCAPE platform is specifically designed to identify selective oral small molecules capable of modulating protein-protein interactions (PPIs) as effectively as systemic biologics. At the forefront of DICE’s portfolio are their lead therapeutic candidates: oral antagonists of the pro-inflammatory signaling molecule IL-17, a validated drug target associated with various immunology indications. Additionally, DICE is actively engaged in developing oral therapeutic candidates that target the integrin α4ß7 for the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease, further expanding their therapeutic endeavors.
