Eli Lilly to acquire Morphic Therapeutics and with it, MORF 057, a potential treatment for inflammatory bowel diseases.
Eli Lilly and Company and Morphic Holding, Inc. announced a definitive agreement for Lilly to acquire Morphic, a biopharmaceutical company developing oral integrin therapies for treatment of serious chronic diseases
Morphic's lead program is a selective oral small molecule inhibitor of alpha 4 beta 7 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 II studies in ulcerative colitis and one Phase II 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. "Oral therapies could open up new possibilities for earlier intervention in diseases like ulcerative colitis, and also provide the potential for combination therapy to help patients with more severe disease," said Daniel Skovronsky, M.D., Ph.D., chief scientific officer of Lilly and president, Lilly Research Laboratories, president, Lilly Immunology. "We are eager to welcome Morphic colleagues to Lilly as this strategic transaction reinforces our commitment to developing new therapies in the field of gastroenterology, where Lilly has made significant investments to deliver first-in-class molecules for the benefit of patients."
Learning Zones
The Learning Zones are an educational resource for healthcare professionals that provide medical information on the epidemiology, pathophysiology and burden of disease, as well as diagnostic techniques and treatment regimens.
1 mins