Eli Lilly will pay up to $2.4 billion to acquire Orna Therapeutics, a biotechnology firm that is developing a technology to turn a patient’s own cells into cell therapies without removing them from the body, the latest in a string of science-focused deals that the pharmaceutical giant has made over the past 12 months as its stock has surged.
Orna’s technology utilizes a form of the nucleic acid RNA called circular RNA, in which the single-stranded chemical forms a loop. This makes it more stable in the body, and could allow the editing of autoimmune cells without removing them from the body.
The company’s first product, ORN-252, is a type of treatment called chimeric antigen receptor T cell, or CAR-T, targeting cells with a receptor called CD19. Orna hopes to use these CAR-Ts to treat autoimmune diseases.
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