Lilly to acquire CoLucid Pharmaceuticals

INDIANAPOLIS and CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Eli Lilly on Wednesday announced its planned acquisition of CoLucid Pharmaceuticals. The $960 million all-cash transaction is aimed at growing Lilly’s migraine pain management portfolio and will add a potential near-term launch to its late-stage pipeline. 

 

CoLucid Pharmaceuticals is developing a potential new treatment for migraine, lasmiditan, that if approved would be a first-in-class way to treat migraines without vasoconstriction. In addition to lasmiditan, Lilly is studying tanezumab in collaboration with Pfizer for the treatment of multiple pain indications, including osteoarthritis, lower back and cancer pain. 

 

“Lasmiditan is a novel, first-in-class molecule that could represent the first significant innovation for the acute treatment of migraine in more than 20 years, and CoLucid has made significant progress in advancing this potential medicine,” Lilly president and CEO David Ricks said. “This innovation, along with galcanezumab, could offer important options for the millions of patients suffering from migraine.”

 

Lasmiditan was first discovered at Lilly and out-licensed to CoLucid in 2005, when pain management wasn’t one of the company’s strategic focus areas. 

 

“We are excited that lasmiditan will be back at Lilly, where it was originally discovered, for the conclusion of Phase 3 development and potential commercialization,” CoLucid CEO Thomas Mathers said. “We are proud of the work that CoLucid has done to develop lasmiditan, and we believe Lilly's expertise in pain and commitment to innovation are a natural fit to potentially bring this medicine to patients.”

 

Lilly expects the acquisition to close in the first quarter of 2017 and said it expects a financial charge of about $850 million, or about $0.80 per share — the number by which the company’s reported earnings per share guidance is expected to be reduced.