LLY Expands Cell Therapy Ambitions With $2.4B Orna Therapeutics Deal

Eli Lilly LLY announced that it entered a definitive agreement to acquire the privately held clinical-stage biotech Orna Therapeutics in a deal valued at $2.4 billion. This transaction includes both upfront consideration and milestone-based payments, though the company did not provide a detailed financial breakdown.

Following this acquisition, Eli Lilly will acquire a broad portfolio of in vivo CAR-T pipeline, including Orna’s lead asset, ORN-252, designed to address B-cell-driven autoimmune diseases. Unlike ex-vivo therapies, where cells are removed, modified and then inserted back into one’s body, in vivo therapies involve infusing new genes directly into the body.

Alongside pipeline assets, Eli Lilly will acquire Orna Therapeutics’ proprietary platforms, including its circular RNA platform, which is designed to enable therapeutic applications that may not be feasible with existing RNA or conventional cell-therapy technologies.

Orna Therapeutics has previously attracted interest from large pharmaceutical companies for its platform technologies. It has entered collaborations with Merck MRK to develop next-generation gene-editing therapies and with Vertex Pharmaceuticals VRTX to work on next-generation vaccine candidates.

Eli Lilly’s Stock Movement

As seen in the chart below, Eli Lilly’s shares have outperformed the industry in the past year.

How Does This Buyout Benefit LLY?

This acquisition comes at a time when Lilly’s financial performance remains strong, supported by the blockbuster success of its GLP-1 therapies Mounjaro (for diabetes) and Zepbound (for obesity). This momentum has helped make Eli Lilly the first pharmaceutical company to reach a market capitalization of $1 trillion.

Rather than addressing near-term revenue pressure, the Orna deal appears aimed at long-term pipeline diversification. Recent regulatory approvals across multiple therapeutic areas — immunology (Omvoh and Ebglyss), oncology (Jaypirca) and neuroscience (Kisunla) —highlight Eli Lilly’s intent to diversify beyond metabolic diseases. A potential deal for Orna Therapeutics fits this trend.

The transaction also benefits Orna, which lacks the commercial infrastructure and global scale required to bring advanced therapies to market, areas where LLY is already well established.

This is the second acquisition deal signed by Lilly so far this year. The company opened its 2026 M&A activity last month when it offered to buy Ventyx Biosciences for $1.2 billion. Through this deal, Eli Lilly intends to deepen its exposure in oral small-molecule therapies targeting inflammatory-mediated diseases, where there is a high unmet need. The deal will add Ventyx’s differentiated portfolio of clinical-stage oral therapies, particularly NLRP3 inhibitors, being developed across cardiometabolic, neurodegenerative and autoimmune indications. This transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2026.

Eli Lilly and Company Price

 

Eli Lilly and Company price | Eli Lilly and Company Quote

LLY’s Zacks Rank

Eli Lilly currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

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