Eli Lilly buys LimmaTech Biologics for up to 780 million dollars

(CONNECT) Eli Lilly will acquire LimmaTech Biologics. This is according to a press release from the biopharmaceutical company based in the Bio-Technopark Schlieren-Zurich. For this acquisition, the North American pharmaceutical giant, which has grown enormously primarily through weight loss drugs, will pay LimmaTech up to 780 million dollars. "This transaction recognizes the value created by the LimmaTech team, including its investors, and the potential of its technology and product pipeline," LimmaTech's Chairman of the Board Staph Leavenworth Bakali is quoted as saying.

LimmaTech was spun off from the former pharmaceutical company GlycoVaxyn in 2015 and develops vaccines against bacterial pathogens for which increasing antibiotic resistance is increasingly limiting treatment options. The active substance LTB-SA7 is currently in phase 1 of clinical development. This is a vaccine against Staphylococcus aureus, the most common pathogen causing wound infections after surgery. The preclinical pipeline also includes bacterial pathogens that cause infertility and other long-term consequences as a result of infections, which disproportionately affect women.

With its vaccine platform, LimmaTech is pursuing a unique scientific proposition, according to Daniel M. Skovronsky, Lilly's Science and Product Director and President of Lilly Research Laboratories: "The solution to this problem lies in targeting the toxins and superantigens that cause disease, rather than targeting bacterial surface antigens. As antibiotic resistance increasingly limits our ability to treat bacterial infections, this platform can help us prevent infections."

LimmaTech CEO Franz-Werner Haas is convinced that Lilly's global development and manufacturing capabilities will help "accelerate the development of our lead Staphylococcus aureus vaccine and advance our preclinical programs in gonorrhea and chlamydia. At the same time as the acquisition of LimmaTech, Eli Lilly also announced the acquisition of the two vaccine developers Curevo Vaccine from the US state of Washington and Vaccine Company from Saudi Arabia. The Group is investing a total of almost 4 billion dollars in the three acquisitions. ce/mm