Eli Lilly to buy Sigilon Therapeutics on a massive premium

Shares of Sigilon Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ: SGTX) soared more than 500% today after Eli Lilly & Co (NYSE: LLY) said it will buy the biopharmaceutical company in a deal worth up to $309.6 million.

Details of the Lilly-Sigilon agreement

Lilly has agreed to pay a total of up to $126.56 a share for the Massachusetts-headquartered firm that specializes in acute and chronic diseases.  

At closing, it will pay $14.92 per share in cash while the remaining will be paid in a non-tradeable CVR – contingent value right. In the press release, Rogerio Vivaldi – the Chief Executive of Sigilon Therapeutics said:

This agreement represents the culmination of the important work led by our research and development team to continue advancing SIG-002 at Lilly – the preeminent leader in treatment of diabetes.

Lilly stock is also in the green today.

Lilly has been working with Sigilon since 2018

Eli Lilly expects to complete the announced transaction in the third quarter of this year.

It has been working with Sigilon Therapeutics on encapsulated-cell therapies for Type 1 diabetes since 2018. CEO Vivaldi also noted today:

With deep industry expertise, Lilly is well-positioned to apply its industry-leading clinical and technical capabilities to harness the full potential of SIG-002 for the benefit of patients and their caregivers.

It is noteworthy that the Lilly-Sigilon merger is the third deal on diabetes-related cell therapies over the past couple of months. Last week, Eli Lilly & Co also revealed plans of spending $2.4 billion to acquire Dice Therapeutics as Invezz reported here.