Eli Lilly will acquire POINT Biopharma as the drugmaker looks to definitively expand its oncology capabilities into next-gen radioligand therapies.
Per the agreement, Lilly will acquire all outstanding shares of Indianapolis-based POINT for a purchase price of $12.50 per share in cash — an aggregate of approximately $1.4 billion. The transaction has already been given the green light from the boards of directors of both companies.
POINT, whose lead candidate (PNT2002) is currently in phase 3 trials for metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer, has its own 80,000-square-foot facility currently supplying doses for clinical trials and equipped to handle large commercial volumes. It also has a radiopharmaceutical R&D center in Toronto.
POINT's pipeline also includes PNT20031, a somatostatin receptor (SSTR) targeted radioligand therapy in phase 3 development for the treatment of patients with gastroenteropancreatic neuroendocrine tumors, and several additional programs in earlier stages of clinical and preclinical development.
POINT was launched in 2019 with the mission of making lifesaving radiopharmaceutical treatments available to more patients by solving the historical challenges that blunted the success of earlier therapeutics.
“Reliability is in our DNA,” said POINT CEO Joe McCann, in a previous interview with Pharma Manufacturing. “POINT’s platform was designed from inception with a focus of ensuring the reliable delivery of next-generation radiopharmaceuticals.”
POINT's proprietary CanSEEK technology aims to minimize radiopharmaceutical toxicity caused by off-target delivery by only activating a radiopharmaceuticals' targeting moiety, such as its ligand, after it has encountered FAP-α in the tumor microenvironment. POINT says the platform has the potential to make treatments even more precise, expanding their therapeutic index, and enabling the use of new, more powerful medical isotopes.
