Eli Lilly and Company has agreed to acquire Loxo Oncology, a Stamford, Connecticut-based biopharmaceutical company, for $235.00 per share in cash, or approximately $8.0 billion. Loxo Oncology is focused on the development and commercialization of medicines for patients with genomically defined cancers.

Key drug candidates from Loxo include LOXO-292, an oral and selective investigational new drug in clinical development for the treatment of patients with cancers that harbor abnormalities in the rearranged during transfection (RET) kinase. RET fusions and mutations occur across multiple tumor types with varying frequency. LOXO-292 was designed to inhibit native RET signaling as well as anticipated acquired resistance mechanisms that could otherwise limit the activity of this therapeutic approach. LOXO-292 has been granted breakthrough therapy designation by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for three indications and could launch as early as 2020, according to information from the companies.

Other key Loxo products are: LOXO-305, an oral Bruton’s tyrosine kinase (BTK) inhibitor, currently in Phase I/II development; Vtrakvi (larotrectini), a TRK inhibitor developed and commercialized in collaboration with Bayer that was recently approved by the FDA; and LOXO-195, a follow-on TRK inhibitor also being studied by Loxo Oncology and Bayer for acquired resistance to TRK inhibition, with a potential launch in 2022.

Under the terms of the agreement, Lilly will commence a tender offer to acquire all outstanding shares of Loxo Oncology for a purchase price of $235.00 per share in cash, or approximately $8.0 billion. The transaction is not subject to any financing condition and is expected to close by the end of the first quarter of 2019, subject to customary closing conditions, including receipt of required regulatory approvals and the tender of a majority of the outstanding shares of Loxo Oncology’s common stock. Following the successful closing of the tender offer, Lilly will acquire any shares of Loxo Oncology that are not tendered into the tender offer through a second-step merger at the tender offer price.

Source: Eli Lilly and Company