RE:RE:RE:RE:RE:Pfizer acquires Canadian Trillium for US$2.3 BillionTrillium had undergone a significant change. Originally headquartered in Canada, the company has now moved its home base to Cambridge. The new CEO joined in 2019 when the stock had tumbled from $30 apiece to just 30 cents after some difficult data readouts failed to impress investors.
Despite the plummet, the new CEO Jan Skvarka saw promise in the CD47 drug class and the science underpinning Trillium’s program. He decided to start fresh: refocusing the company on intravenous administration for multiple myeloma, acute myelogenous leukemia, diffuse large B-cell lymphoma and solid tumors. The company also turned over its leadership and brought on a slate of directors who had spent time at some of the top pharmaceutical companies in the world.
Skvarka noted in an April 2021 interview that CD47 could eventually be a companion to checkpoint inhibitors such as Merck’s class-leading blockbuster Keytruda, because they target the other arm of the immune system.
Skvarka said Trillium will carve out a place in the future CD47 market because its two therapies can safely be used in combination with other cancer drugs.