Timothy Springer.
© 2018 Bloomberg Finance LP
Harvard professor Timothy Springer first made headlines in 2020 when the biotech company he invested in — Moderna — suddenly became famous for its Covid-19 vaccines, sparking a stock rally that made him a billionaire. Now he is set to receive a nine-figure windfall from pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly, which raised $3.2 billion for Morphic Holding, the biotech firm that Springer founded in 2014.
Eli Lilly announced Monday that it will acquire the Waltham, Mass.-based company for $57 in cash per share. Springer currently owns about 16% of Morphic, which means it will receive about $435 million (before taxes) when the deal closes in the third quarter of this year.
The announcement sent Morphic’s stock price soaring, up 75% to $55.79 as of 2:45 p.m. ET on Monday. The sale price also represents a 280% gain for Springer since the company went public at $15 per share in July 2019. Forbes estimated his net worth as of Monday afternoon at $2 billion. Springer declined to comment for this story.
Morphic develops oral drugs using proteins called integrins that help cells attach to and communicate with other cells. The company’s therapies could treat autoimmune diseases and serious chronic conditions from inflammatory bowel disease to cancer. It is this research that has sparked Eli Lilly’s interest, particularly a small-molecule inhibitor called MORF-057 that is currently in Phase 2 trials for the treatment of ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease.
“Inflammatory bowel disease trials are very long, and a major pharmaceutical partner has always been considered,” Springer said News about endpoints on Monday. “Lilly’s offer was unexpected. The company was not put up for sale. Lilly just wanted that [MORF-057] program.”
Springer, 76, received his Ph.D. in molecular biology in 1976 and began teaching at Harvard the following year. He has been conducting ground-breaking research ever since. His work as an immunologist led in the 1980s to the discovery of integrins and molecules associated with lymphocyte function, which formed the basis of the 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 rigor in my science is validated by the fact that the results I have in my lab can be reproduced in the companies I’ve found and turned into drugs,” Springer said. Forbes in 2020.
In addition to Morphic and Moderna, Springer founded or was 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 on integrins also earned him the prestigious Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award in 2022 along with two other scientists.
“For Scholar Rock and Morphic, I’m the founder of these companies and as a scientist I came up with the concepts to create them,” he said. Forbes in 2020. “My philosophy is to invest in what you know, and I’m a scientist at heart. I am an active investor as well as a very rigorous scientist.”
Morphic was not Springer’s only victory 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 roughly $19 million in Tectonic in June 2022 and another $42 million in a merger in January, bringing its stake to 29%. That stake is now worth about $67 million.
He first backed Moderna, his best investment to date, in 2010 when he put about $5 million into the company. Forbes he estimates that his stake in the company, which is not publicly disclosed, is about 3% and is currently worth about $1.4 billion. In addition to his investments, Springer is also an active philanthropist. In 2017, he founded the Institute for Protein Innovation (IPI), a Boston-based nonprofit focused on protein science research, and has donated at least $250 million to the institute over the years.
“I like active investing, but I also like active philanthropy,” he said Forbes in 2020. “My motivation [IPI] is not only to help develop new reliable antibodies that scientists around the world can use to make biological discoveries, but also new technology that will enable many more discoveries to be made.”