Sigilon Biopharm Acquired by Lilly to Develop Type 1 Diabetes Treatments

Eli Lilly announced Thursday that it will acquire the privately held biopharmaceutical company Sigilon Therapeutics with the goal of developing encapsulated cell therapies for the potential treatment of type 1 diabetes.

The companies said that in the Lilly-Sigilon collaboration, Sigilon will use induced pluripotent stem cells, a type of stem cell derived from adult cells, engineered into differentiated insulin-producing pancreatic beta cells. In type 1 diabetes, pancreatic beta cells are destroyed by the immune system, and the goal of these products will be to restore insulin production without triggering an immune reaction.

Lilly will pay $63 million up front for an exclusive worldwide license to Sigilon’s technology for islet cell encapsulation. Sigilon will be eligible for up to $410 million for meeting development and commercialization milestones.

This is the second acquisition this month for Lilly, having announced its planned purchase of Dice Therapeutics, another biopharmaceutical company specializing in autoimmune diseases, for approximately $2.4 billion.

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