Update: Lilly makes $7bn bid for in vivo CAR-T firm Kelonia
Eli Lilly has agreed to spend some more of the cash raked in from its fast-growing incretin therapies for obesity and diabetes on an acquisition, this time for cell therapy developer Kelonia Therapeutics.
First reported by the Wall Street Journal over the weekend, Lilly has now confirmed an offer of $3.25 billion upfront for the privately-held company, along with additional milestone payments that could drive the value of the deal up to a massive $7 billion.
Boston-based Kelonia is engaged in the hot area of in vivo CAR-T therapies, presenting encouraging results with its BCMA-targeted KLN-1010 candidate at last year's ASH haematology congress, but the price ticket agreed by Lilly has nevertheless raised some eyebrows, given the programme is in early clinical development.
Preliminary data from the inMMyCAR study of KLN-1010 – in just four patients – showed that all of them achieved minimal residual disease (MRD) negativity at four weeks.
In vivo cell therapies don't require the costly and sometimes lengthy process of harvesting, modifying, and cultivating patients' own cells needed for the current generation of ex vivo CAR-Ts, as well as the need for patients to undergo aggressive lymphodepletion therapy to destroy their bone marrow before treatment.
The promise of the in vivo approach has sparked other acquisitions of biotech start-ups by big pharmas groups, including Bristol Myers Squibb's $1.5 billion takeover of Orbital Therapeutics and Gilead Sciences' purchase of Interius for $350 million last year, but Lilly's offer for Kelonia takes the M&A activity in the category to a new level.
Lilly has been busily investing the cash generated by its dual GIP/GLP-1 agonist therapy Mounjaro/Zepbound (tirzepatide) in a string of pipeline-building takeovers this year, with the Kelonia announcement coming after a $7.8 billion offer for sleep disorder specialist Centessa Pharma and a $2.4 billion bid for in vivo CAR-T therapy developer Orna Therapeutics – both still playing out – and a completed $1.2 billion acquisition of immunology-focused Ventyx Bio.
Meanwhile, 2026 has also seen Lilly sign an $8.85 billion strategic alliance with China's Innovent Biologics, spanning a series of programmes across oncology and immunology, and licensing deals with Seamless Therapeutics, Repertoire Immune Medicines, and Nimbus Therapeutics.
While its cardiometabolic disease franchise has been driving Lilly's recent sales growth, oncology remains a key focus for the company, although mainly in solid tumours, and its blood cancer portfolio currently consists of just one approved therapy, non-covalent BTK inhibitor Jaypirca (pirtobrutinib) for chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL), small lymphocytic lymphoma (SLL), and mantle cell lymphoma (MCL).
"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. Kelonia's in vivo platform has the potential to change that by delivering rapid, durable responses in a far simpler, off-the-shelf format," said Jacob Van Naarden, president of Lilly Oncology and head of corporate business development for the company.
"The early clinical data for KLN-1010 are highly encouraging, both as a potential step forward for patients with multiple myeloma and as proof of concept for Kelonia's platform," he added.
