La Jol­la ex­its to In­no­vi­va in a deal that caps 33 years marked by miss­es in lu­pus, malar­ia and be­ta tha­lassemia

Thir­ty-three years af­ter open­ing its doors and af­ter many at­tempts at get­ting a lu­pus drug across the fin­ish line, La Jol­la Phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal is now wrap­ping in­to the In­no­vi­va fold to give the ac­quir­er two ap­proved hos­pi­tal drugs.

La Jol­la will be val­ued at about $149 mil­lion in the sale, the com­pa­ny said Mon­day morn­ing, as it of­floads its two hos­pi­tal drugs, Gi­apreza and Xer­a­va, to In­no­vi­va.

The news sent the biotech’s shares $LJPC up a whop­ping 81% be­fore the open­ing bell Mon­day.

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