Kirkland & Ellis Advises Eli Lilly in $3.2 Billion Morphic Buy

Kirkland & Ellis represented Eli Lilly & Co. in its $3.2 billion acquisition of biopharmaceutical company Morphic Holding Inc.

The deal, announced Monday, aims to help Lilly expand its drug portfolio for inflammatory bowel disease and other chronic illnesses.

Fenwick & West advised Morphic during the transaction. The company has been developing experimental oral treatments that have the potential to “open up new possibilities for earlier intervention in diseases like ulcerative colitis” and help patients with other serious conditions, Lilly said.

Health care has been one of the most active industries for deals, helping to drive an uptick in mergers and acquisitions this year. Kirkland is among Big Law’s top dealmakers over the year so far, working on $172.8 billion worth of transactions through June, according to Bloomberg data.

The Morphic deal is the latest of several transactions that the firm has handled for Lilly, including acquisitions of smaller pharma companies.

The Kirkland team was led by corporate partners Keri Schick Norton, Steven Choi, and Sarkis Jebejian. Those lawyers also advised on Lilly’s $1.4 billion acquisition of POINT Biopharma and its $2.4 billion acquisition of DICE Therapeutics, both in 2023, among others.

The Kirkland team also includes capital markets partners Sophia Hudson and Sharon Freiman, antitrust & competition partners Andrea Murino and Samantha Morelli, technology and IP transactions partner Shellie Freedman, and executive compensation partner Rob Fowler.

Fenwick’s team is headed by corporate partners Effie Toshav, Doug Cogen, David Michaels, Victoria Lupu, Rob Freedman, and Julia Forbes.

Fenwick brought in technology transactions partner Stefano Quintini, patent partner Antonia Sequeira, antitrust partner Tom Ensign, and healthcare regulatory partner Jennifer Yoo to advise on the deal. Executive compensation and employee benefits partners Matt Cantor and Liz Gartland are also part of the team.