Eli Lilly is picking up its second in vivo CAR-T company of the year, paying $3.25 billion in upfront cash for Kelonia Therapeutics and its phase 1-stage myeloma therapy.
Kelonia is a lentiviral vector delivery specialist whose lead program is a BCMA-targeting in vivo CAR-T called KLN-1010. The Boston-based biotech read out a slice of data from a phase 1 trial in relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma last year that demonstrated a 100% minimal residual disease-negative response rate in the first four patients evaluated.
As well as KLN-1010, the other prize for Lilly is Kelonia’s in vivo gene placement system, which uses specially engineered lentiviral-based particles designed to selectively enter T-cells inside the body.
In this morning’s release, Jacob Van Naarden, president of Lilly Oncology and head of corporate business development, pointed to the “highly encouraging” early clinical data for KLN-1010 as both a “potential step forward for patients with multiple myeloma and as proof of concept for Kelonia’s platform.”
To get hold of the biotech, Lilly has not only agreed to pay $3.25 billion but has signed off on potential clinical, regulatory and commercial milestones that could take the deal’s total value up to $7 billion, according to the April 20 release.
“Autologous CAR-T therapies have meaningfully improved outcomes for patients with various cancers, but significant manufacturing, safety and access barriers mean that only a fraction of eligible patients actually receive them,” Lilly’s Van Naarden said. “Kelonia’s in vivo platform has the potential to change that by delivering rapid, durable responses in a far simpler, off-the-shelf format.”
“We look forward to working together with the Kelonia team to rapidly advance KLN-1010 to address patient need and recognize the full potential of their platform in other conditions where patients may benefit,” he added.
Lilly wasn’t the first company to see the potential of Kelonia’s lentiviral vector delivery tech. Johnson & Johnson formed a pact with the biotech last November, while Astellas’ Xyphos unit signed up to a two-pronged collaboration back in 2024.
Kelonia’s platform is based on research from the lab of Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Michael Birnbaum, Ph.D., as well as work at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS). The biotech was incubated and seed funded by venture group Venrock, launching with a $50 million series A in 2022.
“Kelonia’s leadership in advancing the immense promise of in vivo cell therapy is unmatched, extending its reach and impact beyond the traditional boundaries of personalized medicine,” the biotech’s CEO, Kevin Friedman, Ph.D., said in this morning’s release. “In combination with Lilly’s strengths, our in vivo iGPS platform is positioned to broaden the reach of cell therapy beyond the current CAR-T landscape in hematologic malignancies and to transform treatment across a far wider range of cancers and other serious diseases.”
Lilly is a new entrant to the in vivo CAR-T field, having bought Orna Therapeutics for up to $2.4 billion in February. That acquisition followed in the footsteps of the likes of Gilead Sciences, which bought in vivo CAR-T company Interius BioTherapeutics for $350 million and inked a deal with Pregene worth as much as $1.6 billion.
Meanwhile, fellow U.S. pharma AbbVie bought autoimmune-focused in vivo CAR-T company Capstan Therapeutics for $2.1 billion last June, while Bristol Myers Squibb bagged Orbital Therapeutics for $1.5 billion in October and AstraZeneca took on EsoBiotec for $1 billion nearly a year ago.
There were hints that Lilly was interested in following its peers as early as last year, when the company put the word out that it was recruiting a director of CAR-T biology.
Buoyed with Mounjaro cash, both of Lilly’s in vivo CAR-T buys are only one facet of a deal-making spree that has seen the Big Pharma buy gene editing partner Verve Therapeutics for $1 billion, inflammation biotech Ventyx for $1.2 billion, eye disease gene therapy company Adverum Biotechnologies and antibody-drug conjugate specialist CrossBridge Bio.
