Lilly to Acquire Beam’s Opt-In Rights to Verve’s Base Editing Programs for Cardiovascular Disease

Rare Daily Staff

Pharma giant Lilly shored up its ongoing partnership with Verve Therapeutics by signing an agreement with base editing biotech Beam Therapeutics to acquire certain rights under Beam’s amended collaboration and license agreement with Verve.

The deal includes Beam’s opt-in rights to co-develop and co-commercialize Verve’s base editing programs for cardiovascular disease, which includes programs targeting PCSK9, ANGPTL3 and an undisclosed liver-mediated, cardiovascular target.

Under the terms of the agreement, Beam will receive a $200 million upfront payment and $50 million equity investment. Beam is also eligible to receive up to $350 million in potential future development-stage payments upon the completion of certain clinical, regulatory, and alliance events for a total of up to $600 million in potential total deal consideration.

The deal will expand Beams cash runway to the second half of 2026. Beam had recently announced cost-cutting measures to extend its cash runway, including a 20 percent reduction of its workforce and the exploration of partnerships.

“As the pioneers in base editing, we’ve had a long-standing vision of enabling a wide range of disease-modifying therapies based on precision genome editing. Our strategy to achieve this has been to advance a diversified portfolio of wholly owned programs, continue to innovate in our platform, and establish creative partnerships that expand the reach of base editing and drive both near- and long-term value creation,” said John Evans, CEO of Beam. “This deal provides meaningful upfront capital to advance our portfolio of clinical- and research-stage programs, with significant additional value achievable as the Verve programs advance through development. In parallel, it provides Verve with a world-class partner for the long term, given Lilly’s deep expertise and resources in the cardiovascular space.”

Photo: John Evans, CEO of Beam Therapeutics