Eli Lilly (LLY.US) rose more than 3% on Monday, reaching $1,095.87. The move follows an announcement on February 9 that Orna Therapeutics has entered into a definitive acquisition agreement with Eli Lilly. The deal involves a full acquisition of Orna by Eli Lilly, aimed at strengthening its position in the fields of cell therapy and genetic medicines. Orna shareholders could receive up to $2.4 billion in cash, which includes an upfront payment and additional payments contingent upon achieving specific clinical development milestones.

The central focus of the acquisition is Orna's circular RNA technology platform and its in vivo CAR-T pipeline. Orna specializes in innovative therapies that combine engineered circular RNA with a novel lipid nanoparticle (LNP) delivery system. This approach enables a patient's own body to generate therapeutic cells, targeting the root cause of diseases. A key advantage of the technology is its ability to achieve more sustained expression of therapeutic proteins, potentially overcoming limitations of current RNA and cell therapies.

Orna's lead program, ORN-252, is an in vivo CAR-T therapy targeting CD19 that is ready for clinical application. It is primarily intended for treating B-cell mediated autoimmune diseases, an area of significant focus for Eli Lilly.