Eli Lilly Set to Acquire DICE Therapeutics

Eli Lilly and Company announced a definitive agreement on June 20, 2023 to acquire DICE Therapeutics, Inc, a biopharmaceutical company that is known for its DELSCAPE technology platform in the immunology space.

"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," said Patrik Jonsson, executive vice president, president of Lilly Immunology and Lilly USA, chief customer officer, in a press release. "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."

"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,” said Kevin Judice, PhD, CEO of DICE Therapeutics, in a press release. “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."

The agreement states that Lily will initiate an offer to acquire all outstanding shares of DICE for a purchase price of $48 per share in cash, which is an aggregate of approximately $2.4 billion, payable at closing. This transaction was also approved by the boards of directors of both companies.

The transaction is expected to close in the third quarter of 2023, and following the closing of the offer, Lilly will acquire any shares of DICE that are not tendered in the tender offer through a second-step merger at the same consideration as paid in the tender offer, according to a company press release.

Source: Eli Lilly and Company