Lilly to acquire Kelonia Therapeutics to advance in vivo CAR-T cell therapies
Rhea-AI Summary
Eli Lilly (NYSE:LLY) agreed to acquire Kelonia Therapeutics to broaden Lilly's genetic medicine and in vivo CAR-T capabilities. The deal offers Kelonia shareholders up to $7.00 billion in cash, including a $3.25 billion upfront payment. KLN-1010, Kelonia's Phase 1 in vivo BCMA CAR-T, showed encouraging data at the 2025 ASH plenary session. The transaction is expected to close in H2 2026 and remains subject to customary regulatory approvals and closing conditions.
Positive
- Up to $7.00B total consideration announced
- $3.25B upfront cash payment to Kelonia shareholders
- KLN-1010 showed encouraging early clinical results at 2025 ASH plenary
- Acquires Kelonia's in vivo iGPS lentiviral platform to expand genetic medicine
Negative
- Transaction subject to regulatory approvals and customary closing conditions
- Closing only expected in H2 2026, creating timing uncertainty
- Lilly will determine accounting treatment at closing, which may affect guidance
News Market Reaction – LLY
In the Apr 20 session, LLY declined 0.77%, reflecting a mild negative market reaction. Our momentum scanner triggered 3 alerts that day, indicating moderate trading interest and price volatility.
Data tracked by StockTitan Argus on the day of publication.
Key Figures
Previous Acquisition Reports
| Date | Event | Sentiment | 24h Move | Catalyst |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mar 31 | Strategic acquisition | Positive | +3.7% | Centessa acquisition expanding sleep-wake disorder pipeline with OX2R agonists. |
| Feb 09 | Cell therapy buyout | Positive | -1.3% | Orna acquisition to advance in vivo cell therapies with up to $2.4B payout. |
| Jan 07 | Inflammation platform deal | Positive | -2.1% | All-cash Ventyx acquisition adding NLRP3 inhibitor pipeline for inflammatory diseases. |
| Dec 09 | Acquisition completion | Positive | -1.5% | Completion of Adverum tender offer with cash plus CVR consideration structure. |
| Oct 24 | Gene therapy acquisition | Positive | +0.5% | Agreement to acquire Adverum and lead gene therapy Ixo-vec for wet AMD. |
24h Move is the share-price change in the day after each event; other market factors may also have contributed.
LLY’s acquisition headlines often see slightly negative to mixed next-day moves, even when strategically positive.
Over the past months, Lilly has repeatedly used acquisitions to expand across gene therapy, inflammatory disease, and sleep medicine, with deals like Centessa, Orna, Ventyx, and Adverum. These announcements, tagged as acquisition, have produced modest average next-day stock moves of about -0.12%. Today’s Kelonia deal extends that pattern into in vivo CAR-T, broadening Lilly’s genetic medicine reach while prior deals targeted sleep-wake, inflammatory, and ocular indications.
Key Terms
in vivo medical
lentiviral medical
car-t medical
gene therapy medical
bcma medical
clinical-stage medical
gaap regulatory
milestones financial
AI-generated analysis. How Rhea-AI works. Not financial advice.
Kelonia's lead program, KLN-1010, is a potentially first-in-class lentiviral in vivo CAR-T therapy currently in Phase 1 for relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma with clinical data recently highlighted in the 2025 ASH Annual Meeting plenary session
Acquisition expands Lilly's genetic medicine capabilities with a novel in vivo gene delivery and integration technology that has potential for broad applicability
Kelonia has developed a proprietary in vivo gene placement system (iGPS® ) that uses specially engineered lentiviral-based particles designed to efficiently and selectively enter T-cells inside the body, allowing the patient's own body to generate chimeric antigen receptor T-cell (CAR-T) therapies that can treat underlying disease. Kelonia's lead program, KLN-1010, is an investigational, one-time intravenous gene therapy that generates anti-B-cell maturation antigen (BCMA) CAR-T cells, targeting the BCMA protein expressed on the surface of multiple myeloma cells. Encouraging early clinical results were presented in the plenary session of the 2025 American Society of Hematology Annual Meeting, providing initial clinical validation and demonstrated promising tolerability. KLN-1010 could represent a transformative advance in the treatment of multiple myeloma by eliminating the complexities of ex vivo patient-specific cell therapy manufacturing, and pre-administration chemotherapy.
"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, executive vice president and president of Lilly Oncology and head of corporate business development. "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. 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."
"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," said Kevin Friedman, Ph.D., chief executive officer of Kelonia. "We have demonstrated the ability to achieve deep multiple myeloma remissions with significantly reduced complexity and cost relative to ex vivo CAR T-cell approaches. 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. It's been a privilege continuing the journey started by Michael Birnbaum and the Venrock team. I am deeply grateful to our employees, partners, and investigators, and most importantly, the patients who make this progress possible."
Under the terms of the agreement, Lilly will acquire Kelonia, and Kelonia shareholders will receive up to
The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions, including customary regulatory approvals, and is expected to close in the second half of 2026. Lilly will determine the accounting treatment of this transaction in accordance with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) upon closing. This transaction will thereafter be reflected in Lilly's financial results and financial guidance.
For Lilly, Kirkland & Ellis LLP is acting as legal counsel. For Kelonia, Jefferies LLC is acting as financial advisor, and Goodwin Procter LLP is acting as legal counsel.
About Kelonia Therapeutics
Kelonia Therapeutics is a clinical-stage biotechnology company pioneering a new wave of genetic medicines using its in vivo gene placement system (iGPS®). Kelonia's elegant, cutting-edge in vivo gene delivery technology uses an advanced lentiviral vector particle harboring envelope modification to improve in vivo gene transfer efficiency and tropism molecules to facilitate tissue-specific delivery. Kelonia is building a pipeline of genetic medicines across a range of diseases, with the bold goal of making CAR-T cell therapies accessible to every patient in need, when and where they need them. Kelonia's lead candidate, KLN-1010, is an in vivo anti-BCMA CAR-T therapy for multiple myeloma being evaluated in a Phase 1 clinical trial. Kelonia was incubated and seed funded by Venrock. For more information, please visit: https://www.keloniatx.com/.
About Lilly
Lilly is a medicine company turning science into healing to make life better for people around the world. We've been pioneering life-changing discoveries for nearly 150 years, and today our medicines help tens of millions of people across the globe. Harnessing the power of biotechnology, chemistry and genetic medicine, our scientists are urgently advancing new discoveries to solve some of the world's most significant health challenges: redefining diabetes care; treating obesity and curtailing its most devastating long-term effects; advancing the fight against Alzheimer's disease; providing solutions to some of the most debilitating immune system disorders; and transforming the most difficult-to-treat cancers into manageable diseases. With each step toward a healthier world, we're motivated by one thing: making life better for millions more people. That includes delivering innovative clinical trials that reflect the diversity of our world and working to ensure our medicines are accessible and affordable. To learn more, visit Lilly.com and Lilly.com/news, or follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. F-LLY
Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements (as that term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995) about the benefits of Lilly's acquisition of Kelonia and Kelonia's product candidates for oncology, and reflects Lilly's current beliefs and expectations. However, as with any such undertaking, there are substantial risks and uncertainties in implementing the acquisition and in the process of drug research, development, and commercialization. Among other things, there can be no guarantee that the acquisition will be consumed on the intended timeline or at all, that Lilly will realize the expected benefits of the acquisition, that the acquisition will achieve the results discussed in this release, or that the acquisition will yield commercially successful products. For further discussion of these and other risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ from Lilly's expectations, see Lilly's Form 10-K and Form 10-Q filings with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. Except as required by law, Lilly undertakes no duty to update forward-looking statements to reflect events after the date of this release.
Refer to: | Ashley Hennessey; gentry_ashley_jo@lilly.com; 317-416-4363 (Media) |
Michael Czapar; czapar_michael_c@lilly.com; 317-617-0983 (Investors) | |
Krystle Gibbs, Kit Rodophele; TBCKelonia@tenbridgecommunications.com; (Kelonia Media) |
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SOURCE Eli Lilly and Company