slickWatts
3 days ago
Eli Lilly just paid $3.2B for a drug being evaluated in two Phase 2 studies that has the "potential" to improve outcomes in treatment of IBD:
Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE: LLY) and Morphic Holding, Inc. (NASDAQ: MORF) today announced a definitive agreement for Lilly to acquire Morphic, a biopharmaceutical company developing oral integrin therapies for treatment of serious chronic diseases.
Lilly will commence a tender offer to acquire all outstanding shares of Morphic for a purchase price of $57 per share in cash (an aggregate of approximately $3.2 billion) payable at closing. The transaction has been approved by the boards of directors of both companies.
Morphic's lead program is a selective oral small molecule inhibitor of a4ß7 integrin for the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) that has the potential to improve outcomes and expand treatment options for patients. This molecule (known as MORF-057) is being evaluated in two Phase 2 studies in ulcerative colitis and one Phase 2 study in Crohn's disease. Additionally, Morphic is developing a preclinical pipeline of other molecules for the treatment of autoimmune diseases, pulmonary hypertensive diseases, fibrotic diseases and cancer.
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/lilly-to-acquire-morphic-to-improve-outcomes-for-patients-with-inflammatory-bowel-disease-302190489.html
Along with Lilly, other drugmakers such as Abbvie Inc (ABBV.N), Pfizer (PFE.N), and Johnson & Johnson (JNJ.N), are also jostling for a share of the bowel disease market.
https://www.reuters.com/markets/deals/eli-lilly-acquire-morphic-holding-32-billion-2024-07-08/
Brilacidin has "potential" in this space:
https://www.biospace.com/article/releases/innovation-pharmaceuticals-provides-update-on-u-s-patent-applications-covering-use-of-brilacidin-in-inflammatory-bowel-diseases-coronaviruses-and-fungal-diseases/
SitTight
3 days ago
New Nature article: "Busting Cryptococcus with brilacidin". Even better, it is featured as "Research Highlight" and was written by its senior editor!
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41579-024-01081-7
It highlights this recent paper published in mBio: "Brilacidin, a novel antifungal agent against Cryptococcus neoformans".
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38916308/
This new Nature article came out today and is published under "Research Highlight" in "Nature Reviews Microbiology". According to the Journal Citation Reports, the journal has a 2023 impact factor of 69.2, ranking it 1st out of 135 journals in the "Microbiology" category.
This should throw an even bigger spotlight on the importantance of Brilacidin as new and best tool against Cryptococcus neoformans, the top-ranked fungal pathogen, and others.