The deal gets Lilly access to Orna’s in vivo CAR T technology. The biotech’s lead asset, which has yet to start clinical testing, is focused on B cell–driven autoimmune diseases.
Eli Lilly has long resisted the CAR T space despite admitting that the treatments have promise. Now, the weight loss juggernaut has found an entry point via a $2.4 billion deal to acquire in vivo CAR T biotech Orna Therapeutics.
CEO David Ricks has said in the past that issues with accessibility have limited the company’s interest in the modality. “The data is amazing,” Ricks told Reuters in 2019, “but practically, it’s not reaching many people.”
The Indianapolis-based pharma is betting on Orna’s technology to address those concerns, according Monday’s announcement. The acquisition also signals that Lilly is not specifically focusing on CAR Ts for cancer but on autoimmune disorders, which other CAR T developers have also begun to explore.
Orna’s pipeline is still preclinical, but lead asset Orna-252 is “clinical trial-ready,” according to the deal announcement. Orna-252 creates CD19-targeting CAR T cells, aimed at treating B cell–driven autoimmune diseases. That asset has shown its ability to deplete B cells in nonhuman primates, according to data presented in December 2025.
Orna’s approach involves delivering a circular RNA molecule via a lipid nanoparticle (LNP) to induce cells to make CAR T cells in the body, rather than removing, modifying and then reintroducing patients’ cells, as traditional CAR T does. The in vivo strategy “offers lower manufacturing cost and shelf-availability,” according to analysts at William Blair, writing to investors Monday morning.
“I’m very proud of what we achieved at Orna,” Tom Barnes, CEO of the Massachusetts-based biotech, wrote in a LinkedIn post Monday morning, “and of the team that did it. Orna . . . was the first circular RNA company and proselytized the value of circles over lines.” Using circular RNA to modify cells, instead of linear, simplifies manufacturing and purification processes, increases the half-life of the therapy and makes LNP formulations easier to make, according to Orna.
Other projects in Orna’s pipeline include a gene editing collaboration with Vertex Pharmaceuticals to develop treatments for sickle cell disease and beta thalassemia, and a partnership with Merck to develop RNA vaccines.
This is the latest bolt-on deal for Lilly this calendar year; In January, the pharma offered Seamless a potential $1.12 billion to develop gene editing therapies in hearing loss, Repertoire up to $1.9 billion to develop autoimmune treatments and InduPro could see a up to $950 million for cancer antibodies.
Orna is also the second full acquisition of the year for Lilly, after the $1.2 billion buy of inflammatory disease biotech Ventyx Biosciences in January.
On Feb. 8, Lilly also announced a collaboration with the Chinese firm Innovent Biologics, the seventh between the two companies. That deal has Lilly paying Innovent $350 million up front, with $8.5 billion in potential payments related to commercial milestones stemming from the partnership’s work on therapies in oncology and immunology.
