Timothy Springer.
© 2018 Bloomberg Finance LP
Harvard professor Timothy Springer first made headlines in 2020 when a biotech company he had invested in — Moderna — suddenly became a household name thanks to its Covid-19 vaccines, leading to a stock rally that made him a billionaire. Now he stands to receive a nine-figure windfall from pharma giant Eli Lilly’s $3.2 billion acquisition of Morphic Holding, a biotech company Springer founded in 2014.
Eli Lilly announced on Monday that it would acquire the Waltham, Massachusetts-based company for $57 in cash per share. Springer currently owns about 16% of Morphic stock, meaning he will receive about $435 million (before taxes) when the deal closes in the third quarter of this year.
The announcement led to a surge in Morphic’s stock price, which rose 75% to $55.79 as of 2:45 PM Eastern on Monday. The sale price also marks a 280% gain for Springer since the company went public at $15 per share in July 2019. Forbes estimates his net worth at $2 billion as of Monday afternoon. Springer declined to comment for this story.
Morphic develops oral medications that use proteins called integrins, which help cells attach to and communicate with other cells. The company’s therapies could treat autoimmune diseases and serious chronic conditions ranging from inflammatory bowel disease to cancer. It is this research that piqued Eli Lilly’s interest, particularly in a small molecule inhibitor called MORF-057, which is currently in Phase 2 trials for the treatment of ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease.
“The inflammatory bowel disease studies take a very long time and a major pharmaceutical partner was always a consideration,” Springer said Endpoints news on Monday. “Lilly’s offer was unexpected. The company was not for sale. Lilly just wanted the [MORF-057] program.”
Springer, 76, earned a Ph.D. in molecular biology in 1976 and began teaching at Harvard the following year. Since then he has conducted groundbreaking research. His work as an immunologist led to the discovery of integrins and lymphocyte function-associated molecules in the 1980s, which formed the basis of a biotech company, LeukoSite, which he founded in 1993. Springer took it public in 1998 and sold it to Millennium Pharmaceuticals. for $635 million a year later, netting $100 million in Millennium stock.
“My accuracy in my science is confirmed by the fact that the results I have in my laboratory can be reproduced in the companies I have found and turned into medicine,” Springer told me. Forbes in 2020.
In addition to Morphic and Moderna, Springer has founded or been an early investor in at least three publicly traded biotech companies, including RNA cell therapy company Cartesian Therapeutics, therapeutic protein and antibody company Tectonic Therapeutic and Scholar Rock, which develops therapies for serious diseases. His work in the field of integrins also earned him the prestigious Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Prize in 2022, together with two other scientists.
“For Scholar Rock and Morphic, I am the founder of those companies and as a scientist I came up with the concepts for their creation,” he said. Forbes in 2020. “My philosophy is to invest in what you know, and I am a scientist through and through. I am an active investor and also a very rigorous scientist.”
Morphic is not the only victory for Springer this year. Tectonic Therapeutic, which Springer co-founded in 2019, merged with publicly traded Avrobio in June and also raised $131 million in a private placement. Springer invested about $19 million in Tectonic in June 2022 and another $42 million in January as part of the merger, bringing its stake to 29%. That stake is now worth about $67 million.
He first backed Moderna, his best investment yet, in 2010 when he put about $5 million into the company. Forbes estimates that his stake in the company, which is undisclosed, is about 3% and is currently worth about $1.4 billion. In addition to his investments, Springer is also an active philanthropist. He founded the Institute for Protein Innovation (IPI) in 2017, a Boston-based nonprofit focused on protein science research, and has donated at least $250 million to the institute over the years.
“I love active investing, but I also really love active philanthropy,” he said Forbes in 2020. “My motivation behind [IPI] is not only to help develop new reliable antibodies that scientists around the world can use for biological discoveries, but also new technology that will enable many more discoveries to be made.”