Kirkland Advises Scorpion Therapeutics on Sale of Inhibitor Program to Eli Lilly
Kirkland & Ellis is advising Scorpion Therapeutics, Inc. on the sale of its PI3Kα inhibitor program, STX-478, to Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE: LLY). The program is a once-daily oral, mutant-selective PI3Kα inhibitor currently being evaluated in a Phase 1/2 clinical trial for breast cancer and other advanced solid tumors. Under the terms of the agreement, Lilly will acquire Scorpion for up to $2.5 billion in cash, inclusive of an upfront payment and subsequent payments upon achievement of certain regulatory and sales milestones. Additionally, as part of the transaction, Scorpion will spin out a new entity to hold its employees and non-PI3Kα pipeline assets. The new, independent company would be owned by Scorpion’s current shareholders with Lilly holding a minority equity interest.
The acquisition will expand Lilly’s oncology pipeline with STX-478, which could represent the next generation of PI3Kα targeting agents by selectively targeting the pathway in cancerous but not healthy cells, thus overcoming a key limitation of currently available medicines that target the PI3Kα pathway. This approach could potentially offer better disease control through deeper pathway inhibition, as well as improved tolerability.
Read the transaction press release
The Kirkland team includes corporate lawyers Allie Wein, Daniel Wolf, Daniel Goldschmidt, Arjun Karthikeyan, Izaak Lustgarten, LinLin Teng and Jake Kim; tax lawyers Sara Zablotney, Christine Lehman and Palmer Gunderson; and executive compensation lawyers Stephen Jacobson and Katherine Nemeth.
