$610 million! Leading multinational pharmaceutical manufacturers launched large acquisitions

【Pharmaceutical Network Industry News】 Eastern time on October 18, multinational pharmaceutical head manufacturer Eli Lilly said that it has agreed to acquire precision genetic drug company Akouos, with a transaction value of up to 610 million US dollars
.
Lilly said it would launch a cash tender offer for Akouos' shares at $12.
50 per share, totaling about $487 million, to be paid
at the close.
According to a statement, the deal includes per-share rights, and shareholders are entitled to up to an additional $3 in cash
based on certain events related to drug trials.
According to public information, Akoouos is a company
focused on developing precision gene therapies to help improve and restore hearing loss in patients.
The precision genetic medicine platform he developed integrates its proprietary adeno-associated virus (AAV) vector library with an innovative delivery system to develop treatments for different forms of sensorineural hearing loss
.
Currently, Akoouos is developing viral gene therapy for the treatment of inner ear disorders, including sensorineural hearing loss
.
Its lead candidate, AK-OTOF, is a therapy
for hearing loss due to mutations in the ototitin gene.
AK-OTOF is a gene therapy
for patients with sensorineural hearing loss due to mutations in the ototitin gene (OTOF).
Normal otoferrin function activates auditory neurons by releasing neurotransmitters
from the ear's sensory cells in response to sound stimuli.
Without functional ototitin, the auditory signals received by the ear cannot be transmitted to the brain
.
There are currently about 200,000 such patients
worldwide.
AK-OTOF uses adeno-associated viral vectors to deliver healthy copies of the OTOF gene to the sensory cells of the cochlea, with the aim of restoring long-term physiological hearing
after a single dose by promoting the expression of normally functional otoletin in affected cochlear cells.
It is understood that AK-OTOF has the potential to become a potential
"first-in-class" therapy for the treatment of inner ear diseases.
In addition to AK-OTOF, the Akooos R&D pipeline includes a variety of other programs for the treatment of inner ear disorders, such as AK-CLRN1 for the treatment of Usher syndrome type 3A, GJB2 for the treatment of common single-gene deafness and hearing loss, and delivery of antibodies
targeting vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF).
Through this transaction, Lilly will help Akouos accelerate the development of
its inner ear gene drug pipeline.
Affected by the news, Akouos' stock price soared more than 90% at one point, closing up 88.
16% at $13.
19 per share, with a new total market value of $487 million
.
In the pharmaceutical industry, Lilly has made frequent acquisitions, and according to incomplete statistics, in the past 20 years, Lilly has initiated mergers and acquisitions worth nearly $30 billion, with two larger deals being the acquisition of ImClone for $6.
5 billion in 2008 and the acquisition of Loxo Oncology
for $8 billion in 2019.
The purpose of the company's acquisition is clear, and most of the products in the pocket are heavy and potential products
.
Among them, in January 2019, Lilly acquired Loxo Oncology for $8 billion to obtain a targeted therapy ceptinib, which was accelerated by the FDA in May 2020, becoming the first tumor therapy approved for RET, with sales revenue
of more than $100 million in 2021.
According to the 2021 financial report, Lilly's total revenue for the full year of 2021 was US$28.
318 billion, a year-on-year increase of 15%.

R&D investment was US$7.
026 billion, an increase of 15%.

In the past 8 years, Lilly has launched 16 new drugs, 20 new drugs are expected to be approved in the next 10 years, and 5 products are expected to be approved in
2022-2023 alone.
Disclaimer: Under no circumstances does the information or opinions expressed in this article constitute investment advice
to anyone.