Lilly's Billion-Dollar Strategic Leap into Targeted Cancer Therapy with POINT Biopharma

On October 3, Eli Lilly and Company and POINT Biopharma Global, Inc. announced their definitive agreement, under which Lilly will acquire POINT, aiming to strengthen their presence in cancer therapeutics  leveraging POINT’s radioligand therapies. The acquisition is valued at around USD 1.4 billion.

POINT Biopharma is a radiopharmaceutical  company with pipeline of clinical and preclinical stage radioligand therapies for cancer treatment. Radioligand therapy links a radioisotope to a targeting molecule and helps in precise targeting of cancer. The direct radiation to cancer cells enables significant anti-tumour efficacy.

As per the terms of the agreement, Lilly will initiate a tender to acquire all outstanding shares of POINT at a cost price of USD 12.50 per share (in cash). This turns out to be an aggregate of USD 1.4 billion. The board of directors from both companies have approved the entire transaction and it is estimated to close by the end of 2023. This includes getting an approval from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission for license transfer as well.

The purchase price is an 87% premium to POINT’s closing stock value on October 2. It is 68% premium with respect to the 30-day volume-weighted average price. Therefore, POINT’s board of directors have recommended the stockholders to tender their shares in the tender offer. In this acquisition, Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC is acting as the exclusive financial advisor for Lilly, while Centerview Partners LLC is operating as POINT’s financial advisor.

Currently, POINT’s PNT2002– a prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) targeted radioligand therapy program, is in the late phase development. The topline data is expected to arrive by the fourth quarter of 2023. They are also working on gastroenteropancreatic neuroendocrine tumours (GEP-NETs) with a somatostatin receptor targeted radioligand therapy (PNT20031).

POINT has a 180,000 square foot manufacturing base in Indianapolis and a radiopharmaceutical research facility in Toronto. On the day of the agreement, Joe McCann, Ph.D., CEO of POINT, said, “The combination of POINT's team, infrastructure and capabilities with Lilly's global resources and experience could significantly accelerate the discovery, development and global access to radiopharmaceuticals.”

For Lilly, this acquisition is a road map to compete with other radiopharmaceuticals players like Novartis. Notably, Novartis has demonstrated successful outcomes of their radioligand therapy Lutathera (lutetium Lu 177 dotatate), the Phase III NETTER-2 trial in GEP-NETs. Similarly, RayzeBio is also developing a treatment for GEP-NETs with RYZ101, which begun its phase III trials in May 2023.

Indianapolis based Eli Lilly and Company has served approximately 51 million people across the globe for over 150 years. This acquisition represents one of their many strategic partnerships to pioneer in the cancer  therapeutics field this year. In addition to acquiring POINT, they have completed a significant USD 2.4 billion buyout of Dice Therapeutics and made a USD 1.93 billion purchase of the privately held Versanis.

Jacob Van Naarden, President of the oncology unit at Lilly, added “We look forward to welcoming POINT colleagues to Lilly and working together to build upon their achievements as we develop a pipeline of meaningful new radioligand treatments for patients.”