Eli Lilly has extended the tender offer expiration date for the acquisition of all of the issued and outstanding shares of biopharmaceutical firm DICE Therapeutics in a deal valued at nearly $2.4bn.
The development comes after the parties signed a definitive agreement on 20 June 2023 for the proposed takeover.
The offer is now updated to expire on 8 August 2023, instead of the previously slated date of 28 July 2023, unless the updated date is terminated or extended again.
Dice focuses on developing new oral therapies for the treatment of chronic immunological ailments by leveraging its DELSCAPE technology platform.
This platform is said to aid in discovering selective oral small molecules that can efficiently regulate protein-protein interactions (PPIs) as systemic biologics.
The company has two oral IL-17 inhibitors in clinic development – DC-806 and DC-856.
Additionally, Dice is developing oral therapies that could act on the integrin α4ß7 to treat inflammatory bowel disease.
The boards of directors of Lilly and Dice have already granted approval for the acquisition.
At the time of the announcement of the deal in June, Lilly anticipated to close the transaction, which is subject to necessary closing conditions and approvals, in the third quarter of this year.
In addition to the acquisition of Dice, Lilly recently announced the signing of an agreement to purchase clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company Versanis Bio for $1.92bn.
