Eli Lilly Expands Drug Pipeline With $2.4 Billion Orna Acquisition and New Partnerships

Eli Lilly announced on Feb. 9 an agreement to acquire Boston area-based biotech Orna Therapeutics for $2.4 billion in cash, adding circular RNA and in vivo CAR-T technology to its drug development toolkit. The acquisition represents a major expansion beyond the company's established diabetes and obesity drug portfolio into cell and genetic therapies.

Orna is developing innovative medicines using circular RNA that can manipulate a patient's genes and/or cells to fight diseases, in particular autoimmune diseases like multiple sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis. The company's therapy with the working name ORN-252 allows the patient's body to generate the changes needed to fight the disease, rather than modifying cells in a lab. According to the acquisition announcement, ORN-252 is "clinical trial-ready," which means it could still be several years away from commercial sales.

Just a day before the Orna announcement, Lilly announced it was paying $350 million upfront to collaborate with a Chinese biotechnology company to develop treatments for immune disorders and cancer. In January, the company announced another billion-dollar deal with a German company to develop hearing-loss gene therapies.

These moves push Lilly further into cell and genetic therapies and additional immunology and oncology programs beyond its current blockbuster areas. The expansion into genetic medicines and cell therapies adds another driver to the company's pipeline strategy, with a focus on treating autoimmune disease and cancer by reprogramming cells directly in the body.

Lilly currently has the best-selling drug on the planet. Last year, tirzepatide, which treats both type 2 diabetes and obesity, knocked Keytruda, the cancer immunotherapy drug made by Merck, off the throne. Tirzepatide is sold as Mounjaro for treating type 2 diabetes and as Zepbound for weight loss.

Lilly shares are up more than 400% over the past five years, which trounces the broader market. The S&P 500 index has climbed about 73% over that period. With a market cap of about $936 billion, the company is fast approaching the elite $1 trillion club, which currently holds only 12 public companies. So far in 2026, Lilly's stock is down about 4%.

The pharmaceutical industry faces significant development challenges. It takes more than 10 years to develop a new drug and costs, on average, $2.6 billion. The success rate of new drug development, from conception to FDA approval, is about 8%. While a drug patent is typically 20 years, much of that time is eaten up during the development period, before a drug goes to market. So effective market exclusivity is often just 10 to 12 years.

The up to $2.4 billion Orna price tag is meaningful, yet small relative to Lilly's 2025 net income of $20,640 million and buyback activity of more than $4.0 billion completed under the 2024 program. The company enters this set of deals with a market profile shaped by a very large 3 year return and a 5 year return that is also very large, alongside a current share price of $1,038.27. The 1 year return of 20.2% and a 7 day gain of 1.7% contrast with a 30 day decline of 3.6% and a year to date decline of 3.9%.