This February, Eli Lilly announced that it has agreed to acquire Orna Therapeutics, a Cambridge-based biotechnology company for $2.4 billion. Orna Therapeutics is developing a new type of medicine using circular RNA. Instead of directly giving a patient drugs, their new technology teaches the patient’s own cells to generate therapeutic proteins, which treats diseases.1 This is extremely significant as it shifts the approach from “ex vivo” (outside the body) drug therapies to “in vivo” (inside), which is seen as much more efficient due to lower costs and their ability to be mass-produced.2
Currently, Zepbound and Mounjaro are the primary growth drivers and dominant force in Eli Lilly’s portfolio. These are both obesity drugs, and the acquisition of Orna Therapeutics will allow for Eli Lilly to expand its drug portfolio to include cancer and autoimmune drugs. Lilly’s acquisition will allow them to bypass the complex, expensive, and time-consuming ex vivo manufacturing process of current CAR-T therapies. (CAR-T therapies are a highly specialised and personalised immunotherapy that treat blood cancers by reprogramming patient’s own T-cells to recognise and kill cancer cells).3
Orna’s in vivo approach will expand patient access and their technology has the potential to drastically improve the commercial viability of CAR-T therapies. Overall, the acquisition of Orna Therapeutics allows Lilly to diversify its portfolio whilst keeping new therapies and drugs scalable and cost-effective.
AstraZeneca, Gilead, and Bristol Myers Squibb, all of which are major pharmaceutical companies, have also all made acquisitions or partnerships in the in vivo cell therapy space.4 However, several other large pharmaceutical companies have not yet made major acquisitions that allow them to gain this valuable in vivo technology, such as Pfizer and Merck. These companies are well known for their strong oncology drug portfolios,5 suggesting they may be missing out on a key next-generation immunotherapy platform.
By entering the field early on compared to other pharmaceutical companies, Lilly has secured a competitive advantage that could allow it to build a strong pipeline of in vivo cell therapies and immunotherapies that compete with these major oncology-focused pharmaceutical companies.
Overall, Lilly’s deal with Orna Therapeutics reflects an industry shift towards in vivo therapies for immunotherapy, and by investing this early, Lilly has gained a competitive advantage that will strengthen its position in the next generation of autoimmune and cancer therapies.