In August 2021, pharmaceutical giant announced its intent to buy Trillium Therapeutics for approximately $2.26 billion .
The "story" behind this deal began decades earlier at University Health Network (UHN) and SickKids in Toronto. Researchers discovered a "do not eat me" signal (CD47) that cancer cells use to hide from the immune system.
Pfizer acquired Trillium to gain access to two lead blood cancer therapies designed to block this signal and help the immune system destroy cancer cells.