Lilly Announces Agreement to Acquire Prevail Therapeutics

Eli Lilly and Company and Prevail Therapeutics Inc. announced a definitive agreement for Lilly to acquire Prevail for $22.50 per share in cash (or an aggregate of approximately $880 million) payable at closing plus one non-tradable contingent value right (“CVR”) worth up to $4.00 per share in cash (or an aggregate of approximately $160 million), for a total consideration of up to $26.50 per share in cash (or an aggregate of approximately $1.040 billion). The CVR is payable (subject to certain terms and conditions) upon the first regulatory approval of a product from Prevail’s pipeline as set forth in more detail below. Prevail is a biotechnology company developing potentially disease-modifying AAV9-based gene therapies for patients with neurodegenerative diseases.

The acquisition will establish a new modality for drug discovery and development at Lilly, extending Lilly’s research efforts through the creation of a gene therapy program that will be anchored by Prevail’s portfolio of clinical-stage and preclinical neuroscience assets. Prevail’s lead gene therapies in clinical development are PR001 for patients with Parkinson’s disease with GBA1 mutations (PD-GBA) and neuronopathic Gaucher disease (nGD) and PR006 for patients with frontotemporal dementia with GRN mutations (FTD-GRN). Prevail’s preclinical pipeline includes PR004 for patients with specific synucleinopathies, as well as potential gene therapies for Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), and other neurodegenerative disorders.

“Gene therapy is a promising approach with the potential to deliver transformative treatments for patients with neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s, Gaucher and dementia,” said Mark Mintun, M.D., vice president of pain and neurodegeneration research at Lilly. “The acquisition of Prevail will bring critical technology and highly skilled teams to complement our existing expertise at Lilly, as we build a new gene therapy program anchored by well-researched assets. We look forward to completing the proposed acquisition and working with Prevail to advance their groundbreaking work through clinical development.”

“Lilly is an established leader in neuroscience drug development and commercialization who shares our commitment to patients with neurodegenerative diseases, and I’m excited for Prevail to join the Lilly family,” said Asa Abeliovich, M.D., Ph.D., founder and chief executive officer of Prevail. “I’m incredibly proud of the Prevail team, who have made great progress advancing our pipeline of gene therapy programs for patients with these devastating disorders. In just over three years, Prevail has advanced two first-in-class gene therapy programs into clinical development for PD-GBA, nGD, and FTD-GRN, established two manufacturing platforms, and developed a broad pipeline with great potential to impact patients in need of disease-modifying treatment options.  With its global scale and resources, Lilly will be the ideal organization to maximize the potential of our pipeline and accelerate our ability to bring these therapies to as many patients as possible. We look forward to working together to advance our shared mission.”

Under the terms of the agreement, Lilly will commence a tender offer to acquire all outstanding shares of Prevail Therapeutics Inc. for a purchase price of $22.50 per share in cash (or an aggregate of approximately $880 million) payable at closing plus one non-tradeable CVR. The CVR entitles Prevail stockholders to up to an additional $4.00 per share in cash (or an aggregate of approximately $160 million) payable (subject to certain terms and conditions) upon the first regulatory approval for commercial sale of a Prevail product in one of the following countries: United States, Japan, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy or Spain. To achieve the full value of the CVR, such regulatory approval must occur by December 31, 2024. If such regulatory approval occurs after December 31, 2024, the value of the CVR will be reduced by approximately 8.3 cents per month until December 1, 2028 (at which point the CVR will expire). There can be no assurance any payments will be made with respect to the CVR. The transaction is not subject to any financing condition and is expected to close in the first quarter of 2021, subject to customary closing conditions, including receipt of required regulatory approvals and the tender of a majority of the outstanding shares of Prevail’s common stock. Following the successful closing of the tender offer, Lilly will acquire any shares of Prevail that are not tendered in the tender offer through a second-step merger at the same consideration as paid in the tender offer.

The purchase price payable at closing represents a premium of approximately 117 percent to the 60-day volume-weighted average trading price of Prevail’s common stock ended on December 14, 2020, the last trading day before the announcement of the transaction. Prevail’s Board of Directors unanimously recommends that Prevail’s stockholders tender their shares in the tender offer. Additionally, certain Prevail stockholders, beneficially owning approximately 51 percent of Prevail’s outstanding common stock, have (subject to certain terms and conditions) agreed to tender their shares in the tender offer.

Upon closing, the impact of this transaction will be reflected in Lilly’s 2021 financial results according to Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP). There will be no change required to Lilly’s 2021 financial guidance being issued today for research and development expense or non-GAAP earnings per share as a result of this transaction.

For Lilly, Lazard is acting as sole financial advisor and Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP is acting as legal counsel. For Prevail, Centerview Partners LLC is acting as sole financial advisor, Ropes & Gray LLP is acting as legal counsel, and Cooley LLP also provided legal counsel.