Beam Therapeutics to Sell Rights in Verve Licensing Deal to Lilly for $250 Million Upfront

By Rob Curran

Biotech company Beam Therapeutics struck a deal with Eli Lilly to sell to the drug giant certain rights in its cardiovascular-disease base-editing licensing deal with Verve Therapeutics for $250 million in cash and stock, plus milestone payments.

Beam, based in Cambridge, Mass., will receive $200 million in cash and a $50 million equity investment, and will be eligible to receive up to $350 million more in milestone payments, based on clinical-development goals.

Beam Therapeutics, was the first biotech company to get rights to base editing technology, a less disruptive variant of the Nobel Prize-winning Crispr gene-editing approach. Verve Therapeutics later licensed Beam's technology to prevent cardiovascular disease.

"We believe that single-course gene-editing treatments could be a compelling new therapeutic option for patients at risk of cardiovascular disease, and we look forward to working with Verve toward that goal," said Ruth Gimeno, group vice president, diabetes, obesity and cardiometabolic research at Lilly, in a statement.

Write to Rob Curran at rob.curran@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 31, 2023 06:44 ET (10:44 GMT)

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