June 22, 2023 -- Eli Lilly said this week it has inked an agreement to acquire Dice Therapeutics, a biopharma firm developing novel oral therapeutic candidates, for $2.4 billion in cash.
The purchase price of $48 per share represents a premium of approximately 40% to the 30-day volume-weighted average trading price of Dice's common stock at the end of trading on June 16.
Dice has developed a technology platform to develop therapies such as oral IL-17 inhibitors to treat chronic diseases in immunology.
The platform is used to discover selective oral small molecules with the potential to modulate protein-protein interactions.
The firm's lead therapeutic candidates are oral antagonists of the pro-inflammatory signaling molecule, IL-17, which is a validated drug target implicated in a variety of immunology indications.
Dice is also developing oral therapeutic candidates targeting the integrin α4ß7 for the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease.
The transaction has been approved by the boards of both Eli Lilly and Dice and is expected to close in the third quarter.
For Lilly, Kirkland & Ellis is the legal counsel. For Dice, Centerview Partners is the exclusive financial advisor and Fenwick & West is the legal counsel.
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