Pfizer has announced plans to acquire Canadian drug developer Trillium Therapeutics Inc. in a $2.26 billion deal meant to boost Pfizer’s arsenal of blood cancer therapies. Under the deal, announced in an Aug. 23 press release, Pfizer will buy all outstanding Trillium shares for $18.50 apiece, representing a 118 percent premium on the stock’s 60-day weighted average price. Last year, Pfizer acquired a $25 million stake in Trillium. Pfizer expects to benefit from Trillium’s blood-cancer therapies, including novel fusion proteins designed to enhance the ability of patients’ immune systems to detect and destroy cancer cells. Trillium’s two lead molecules, TTI-622 and TTI-621, block a signal-regulatory protein known as SIRPα–CD47. The two fusion proteins are currently in clinical studies, with a focus on various types of blood cancer. “Trillium has the only known SIRPα–CD47 targeting molecules with clinically meaningful monotherapy responses as well as a strong basis for combination therapies,” Dr. Jan Skvarka, Chief …
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