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Eli Lilly has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Versanis for over $1.9bn, marking a significant boost to its cardiometabolic disease pipeline. The deal gives Lilly access to Versanis' lead asset, bimagrumab, a monoclonal antibody currently being assessed in a mid-stage trial as both a monotherapy and in combination with Novo Nordisk’s semaglutide in adults who are overweight or obese. Semaglutide belongs to a class of drugs known as incretins and is already available in major markets for weight management under the brand names Wegovy and Rybelsus. The drug suppresses patients’ appetites by mimicking an intestinal hormone called GLP-1, which is released after eating. Meanwhile, Versanis’ bimagrumab acts directly on fat cells without reducing appetite or prompting lean mass loss. "Combining incretins with bimagrumab has the potential to further reduce fat mass while preserving muscle mass and may lead to better outcomes for people living with obesity and obesity-related complications,” Lilly outlined. Ruth Gimeno, group vice president, diabetes, obesity, and cardiometabolic research at Lilly, said: "By unifying the knowledge and expertise in incretin biology at Lilly with the deep understanding of activin biology at Versanis, we aim to harness the potential benefits of such combinations for patients." Under the terms of the agreement, Versanis shareholders could receive up to $1.925bn in cash, inclusive of an upfront payment and subsequent payments upon achievement of certain development and sales milestones. Mark Pruzanski, Versanis chairman and chief executive officer, added: "It has been a privilege for our team to advance bimagrumab to address one of the greatest health crises of our time. "As a global leader developing life-changing medicines, Lilly is ideally positioned to realise the potential of bimagrumab in combination with its incretin therapies to benefit people living with cardiometabolic diseases.” The deal comes less than a month after Lilly said it would be acquiring Dice Therapeutics for approximately $2.4bn in a bid to expand its immunology pipeline. Under the deal, Lilly will gain access to the biopharma’s lead candidate, DC-806, an oral small-molecule inhibitor of the pro-inflammatory cytokine interleukin-17 currently in phase 2 development for psoriasis. Lilly is also set to acquire Sigilon Therapeutics, a biopharma focused on developing functional cures for acute and chronic diseases, for over $300m.

Courtesy of Michael Vi/Getty Images Eli Lilly stands to gain access to DICE Therapeutics’ DELSCAPE platform, which enables the design of orally available molecules for autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. Pictured: Red Eli Lilly sign on a white wall/iStock, Michael Vi To deepen its autoimmune disease portfolio, Eli Lilly is acquiring California-based biopharma DICE Therapeutics for more than $2 billion, the pharmaceutical giant announced Tuesday. Under the terms of the deal, Lilly will buy all of DICE’s outstanding shares for $48 a pop, representing a 40% premium to the latter’s 30-day volume weighted average shares price as of last Friday. Lilly will make the payment in cash, amounting to an aggregate of around $2.4 billion. The two companies expect to close the buyout during the third quarter of 2023, pending anti-trust clearance. The deal will also only push through if a majority of DICE’s outstanding shares are tendered. DICE’s board of directors has unanimously recommended that stockholders offer their shares for sale. DICE shares jumped 41% in pre-market trading Tuesday in response to the news. If it pushes through, the deal will give Lilly access to DICE’s proprietary drug discovery and development platform DELSCAPE, which optimizes the design of small molecule drugs to effectively disrupt protein-protein interactions, according to DICE’s website . This approach allows researchers to produce orally active medicines for autoimmune and inflammatory diseases, both therapeutic areas dominated by injectable systemic biologics. “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,” DICE Therapeutics CEO Kevin Judice said in a statement . DICE’s DELSCAPE platform has yielded two oral candidates that have begun early-stage clinical testing: DC-806 and DC-853 target the pro-inflammatory cytokine IL-17, a known player in psoriasis and other autoimmune and inflammatory conditions. DICE is also developing oral integrin inhibitors for fibrosis and inflammatory bowel disease and an oral PD-L1 inhibitor for various cancers. These products are still in the preclinical stages. Once the acquisition closes, DICE’s programs will join the Lilly fold, bolstering the pharma company’s immunology portfolio, which currently includes the approved JAK inhibitor Olumiant (baractinib) for rheumatoid arthritis and injectable monoclonal antibody Taltz (ixekizumab), indicated for plaque psoriasis, psoriatic arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis and axial spondyloarthritis. Lilly’s clinical development pipeline for immunology includes mirikizumab, an investigational antibody for ulcerative colitis. In April 2023, the FDA rejected mirikizumab’s bid for authorization, citing issues with the proposed manufacturing process. The regulator did not flag problems with the candidate’s safety data or proposed label. Mirikizumab is approved for ulcerative colitis in Japan and has recently been given recommended for approval by the European Medicine Agency. The molecule is also in Phase III development for Crohn’s disease. Tristan Manalac is an independent science writer based in metro Manila, Philippines. He can be reached at tristan@tristanmanalac.com or tristan.manalac@biospace.com .