Eli Lilly to Acquire Base Editing Rights from Beam Therapeutics for Up to $600 Million to Advance Cardiovascular Gene Therapies

According to the Zhitong Finance APP, Eli Lilly and Company (LLY.US) is purchasing the rights to develop and commercialize treatments for heart disease using experimental gene-editing technology from Beam Therapeutics Inc. (BEAM.US).

Eli Lilly and Company said in a statement on Tuesday that it will pay Beam Therapeutics Inc. an upfront payment of $200 million and make a $50 million equity investment in the company. If these projects achieve certain milestones, Eli Lilly, which has deep expertise in cardiovascular disease, will pay an additional $350 million.

After the announcement, Eli Lilly and Company rose 1.71% and Beam Therapeutics Inc. surged 10.41% in pre-market trading on Tuesday.

Reportedly, Eli Lilly is purchasing some rights that Beam obtained earlier in a deal with Verve Therapeutics (VERV.US), which is testing a treatment for patients with high cholesterol. Beam holds exclusive rights to a gene-editing technology called base editing and has licensed its technology to Verve. Beam stated that because base editing alters DNA in a highly targeted manner, it carries a lower risk of side effects compared to other gene-editing tools like Crispr.

Last week, Verve announced that the U.S. drug regulatory agency had lifted the hold on its application to begin human testing of a base editing treatment aimed at altering a cholesterol-elevating gene to prevent heart attacks.

As the pandemic gradually recedes, the biotechnology industry faces numerous challenges, and this deal has injected much-needed cash into Beam. Earlier this month, the company announced it would lay off about 100 employees, approximately 20% of its workforce, and halt the development of a drug for treating the hepatitis B virus.