Lilly to acquire Orna Therapeutics for up to $2.4 billion

Eli Lilly and Company has agreed to acquire Orna Therapeutics for $2.4 billion. Under the agreement, Orna shareholders could receive up to $2.4 billion in cash, inclusive of an upfront payment and subsequent payments upon achievement of certain clinical development milestones. The deal includes Orna's lead treatment, ORN-252, a clinical-trial-ready, CD19-targeting in vivo CAR-T therapy designed to treat B cell-driven autoimmune diseases.

Orna is advancing a class of therapeutics using engineered circular RNA paired with lipid nanoparticles to allow the patient’s own body to generate cell therapies that can treat underlying disease. Orna’s circular RNA is delivered by lipid nanoparticles, which “instruct” the patient’s immune cells to become the therapy itself. Traditional CAR-T requires taking a patient's cells, engineering them outside the body, then putting them back in.

Orna was founded in Watertown, Massachusetts, and built around circular RNA. Circular RNA does not have exposed ends for cellular enzymes to degrade, allowing its therapeutic proteins to be expressed longer. Orna paired its technology with a proprietary lipid nanoparticle delivery system to create an in vivo cell engineering platform.

ORN-252 targets CD19, a protein expressed on B cells. The therapy is designed to treat autoimmune diseases driven by B cells, including conditions such as lupus.