Eli Lilly reiterates POINT acquisition plans with tender offer extension

Eli Lilly has substantiated its desire to acquire radiopharmaceutical company POINT Biopharma by extending the expiration date of the tender offer.

The offer, which will now give POINT until 5:00 pm ET on 16 November to accept or terminate proceedings, outlined Lilly’s proposal to purchase shares at $12.5 per share in cash, with the condition to purchase a majority of POINT’s outstanding shares. The offer was previously scheduled to expire one minute after 11.59 pm ET on 9 November.

As of 8 November, Lilly reported that nearly 15 million shares had been presented and not properly withdrawn. These shares constituted about 14.16% of the issued and outstanding shares of POINT as of the same date.

The transaction is making waves at POINT where it has been met by a wall of opposition. As per an amended tender offer statement filed with the SEC on 8 November, POINT has received several complaint letters from assumed shareholders, with one demanding that POINT scrutinise the proposed acquisition by Lilly.

In a 27 October SEC filing, the amended offer revealed that plaintiffs, John Clark, Matthew Jones, and Jade Trinh, filed individual complaints regarding the transaction to US District Court for the District of Delaware. All three complaints asserted that POINT “omitted and/or misrepresented” details of the acquisition. Collectively, the lawsuits known colloquially as “Complaints,” are against POINT and members of the company’s board. 

In a 6 November filing, BVF Partners L.P. asserted that completing the transaction prior to receiving results from POINT’s Phase III SPLASH (NCT04647526) trial is “not in the best interest of the issuer’s shareholders.” The clinical study is evaluating PNT2002 as a second-line treatment for metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC). Primary completion is expected in December 2023.

Despite the negative reception by shareholders, since announcing the acquisition, POINT’s stock price has jumped 97.90%.

POINT has several other radioligand therapies in its pipeline, namely for the treatment of neuroendocrine tumors (NETs), solid tumors expressing FAP and prostate cancer.

Aside from the POINT acquisition, Lilly has made a number of pipeline strengthening moves.

In October, Lilly and French biotech company Mablink signed an acquisition agreement that is awaiting approval from the French Ministry of the Economy. The goal, as per Lilly, is to utilize Mablink’s PSARLink technology to advance antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) in oncology treatments.

In August, Lilly successfully completed the $309m acquisition of biopharmaceutical company Sigilon. In doing so, Lilly gained access to Sigilon’s encapsulated cell therapy candidate SIG-002 for the treatment of type 1 diabetes (T1D).

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