Lilly to pay 3. 2 billion for Morphic

A biotech firm founded by Harvard Medical School chemist and molecular biologist Timothy Springer will become part of Eli Lilly and Company's R&D pipeline following a 3. 2 billion acquisition. Lilly is slated to buy the Waltham, Massachusetts, start-up Morphic Therapeutic, which spun out of Springer's lab in 2016. The company develops small molecules that inhibit integrins, proteins found on the surfaces of cells throughout the body that are involved in a range of autoimmune diseases, cancers, and fibrosis. At the heart of the deal is an integrin inhibitor called MORF-057. The compound targets the α4β7 integrin, a glycoprotein expressed on circulating B and T immune cells. The integrin binds to adhesion molecules on certain endothelial cells, including in the gastrointestinal wall (Ther. Adv. Chronic Dis. 2015, DOI: 10. 1177/2040622315586970). Morphic is testing MORF-057 in midstage studies for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), specifically ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease. As