Eli Lilly acquired Beam Therapeutics’ opt-in rights to Verve Therapeutics’ base editing programs for cardiovascular disease Tuesday morning.
Per terms of the deal, Lilly is paying Beam $200 million upfront along with a $50 million equity investment. Going forward, Beam will be eligible to receive up to $350 million in potential future development-stage payments upon the completion of certain clinical, regulatory and alliance events.
In April 2019, Beam and Verve entered into an agreement that provided Verve with the exclusive, worldwide and sublicensable license under certain of Beam’s base editing, gene editing and delivery technologies for human therapeutic applications against four liver-mediated, cardiovascular disease targets. Those include PCSK9 and ANGPTL3, as well as undisclosed gene targets.
In July 2022, the two companies amended the agreement so that Beam had an opt-in right should Verve develop and commercialize an additional liver-mediated, cardiovascular disease target. Beam could share 35% of worldwide expenses of the development of the product as well as jointly commercialize and share in 35% of the profits.
Notably, the deal is also expected to extend Beam’s cash runway to the second half of 2026.
In a statement, Beam CEO John Evans said the deal provides meaningful upfront capital to advance the company’s clinical- and research-stage programs and gives Verve with a key business partner for long-term operations.
“As the pioneers in base editing, we’ve had a long-standing vision of enabling a wide range of disease-modifying therapies based on precision genome editing,” Evans stated. “Our strategy to achieve this has been to advance a diversified portfolio of wholly owned programs, continue to innovate in our platform, and establish creative partnerships that expand the reach of base editing and drive both near- and long-term value creation. Our initial collaboration with Verve and this new transaction with Lilly are exemplary of our execution of that strategy.”
Lilly’s hot dealmaking streak continues in earnest with the Beam licensing play.
Earlier this month, Lilly announced that it was buying radiopharmaceuticals manufacturer Point Biopharma for $1.4 billion and France-based, antibody-drug conjugate biotech Mablink Bioscience.
Lilly is slated to release its latest earnings report Thursday morning.
“This agreement expands the scope of Lilly’s ongoing relationship with Verve and gives us exposure to the full breadth of potential with Beam’s base editing platform,” Ruth Gimeno, PhD, group VP of diabetes, obesity and cardiometabolic research at Lilly, stated. “We believe that single-course gene editing treatments could be a compelling new therapeutic option for patients at risk of cardiovascular disease, and we look forward to working with Verve toward that goal.”
As for Verve, the company recently announced it would move forward with its first in-human base editing trial in the U.S. after the Food and Drug Administration lifted its clinical hold on its Investigational New Drug application.
The organization also collaborated with Lilly earlier this year, obtaining a $60 million investment from the pharma giant for its “one-and-done” cardiovascular gene editing program over the summer.
