Besides preclinical oncology candidates, company will gain drug discovery platform.

Eli Lilly plans on taking over SGX Pharmaceuticals for $64 million in cash to broaden its preclinical oncology pipeline. The company says that it will pay $3 per share of SGX common stock, about a 119% premium over the firm’s closing price yesterday.

Lilly will thus gain SGX’ Fast™ technology, a fragment-based, protein structure-guided drug discovery platform, and preclinical oncology compounds focused on kinase targets. The companies have collaborated since 2003, with SGX determining 3-D structures of Lilly drug targets using its x-ray crystallography technology. The firms’ ongoing partnership provides Lilly with access to the SGX synchrotron beamline facility, SGX-CAT, which enables x-ray crystallography and protein-structure determination.

“After a successful collaboration over the past several years, we are excited to bring the scientific and technological expertise of SGX into Lilly’s research organization,” comments Steven M. Paul, M.D., evp, science and technology for Lilly. “We will leverage the combined resources of both companies to strengthen our structural biology capabilities and seek out innovative therapies for patients.”

The transaction is expected to be completed in the second half. Upon closing of the transaction, Lilly will incur a one-time charge to earnings for acquired in-process R&D.

Previous articleVitro Diagnostics Opens Manfacturing Facility for Its Stem Cell Products
Next articleResearchers Derive hESCs from Four-Cell Embryo