Lilly to acquire Verve Therapeutics for $1.3 billion

Eli Lilly and Company says it will acquire the gene therapy start-up Verve Therapeutics for $1.3 billion. Verve’s lead drug candidate, VERVE-102, turns off the PCSK9 gene in the liver to reduce LDL-C cholesterol in people with cardiovascular disease.

Ruth Gimeno, Lilly group vice president for diabetes and metabolic research and development, says in a press release that “VERVE-102 has the potential to be the first in vivo gene-editing therapy for broad patient populations and could shift the treatment paradigm for cardiovascular disease from chronic care to one-and-done treatment.”

Verve published positive results for one of its gene therapies back in 2021. The company uses base editing to precisely replace a nucleotide in the PCSK9 gene and deactivate it. Last year, Verve paused a Phase 1b clinical trial for a similar base-editing therapy it had in development due to concerns with the lipid nanoparticle (LNP) delivery vehicle. VERVE-102 uses a different LNP and showed evidence of a clean safety profile in April. Phase 1 trial data released by Verve shows that the therapy was able to reduce LDL-C cholesterol levels up to 69% in patients.

Verve is also developing a therapy to target the ANGPTL3 gene using the same base-editing approach, also to help lower cholesterol.

Lilly has been busy this year acquiring the rights to medicines developed by small pharmaceutical start-ups. Most notably, it acquired Scorpion Therapeutics and its PI3Kα inhibitor program for $2.5 billion in January. The deal for Verve is expected to close in the third quarter.