Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE: LLY) announced that agreement has been reached to acquire US-based Kelonia Therapeutics, Inc., a private Boston-headquartered gene therapy company, for up to USD 7 billion in upfront and contingent milestone payments. The transaction extends Lilly's genetic medicines portfolio into in vivo chimeric antigen receptor T cell (CAR-T) generation, a modality that bypasses the ex vivo cell manufacturing requirements of approved autologous CAR-T products.
The deal comprises USD 3.25 billion in upfront cash paid to Kelonia shareholders upon closing, with up to USD 3.75 billion in additional payments contingent on the achievement of clinical, regulatory, and commercial milestones. Individual milestone tiers and royalty terms were not disclosed. No geographic carve-outs or territorial licensing splits were disclosed; as a full company acquisition, Lilly acquires global rights to all Kelonia intellectual property and pipeline assets. Transaction closing conditions and an expected closing date were not specified in the announcement.
In vivo lentiviral vector platform and KLN-1010
The central value driver is Kelonia's targeted lentiviral in vivo CAR-T platform, which uses bispecific binder-redirected lentiviral vectors to selectively transduce circulating T cells directly within the patient. This approach eliminates the apheresis, ex vivo transduction, and lymphodepletion-dependent reinfusion steps that characterise current autologous CAR-T manufacturing, addressing a well-documented bottleneck in cell therapy access and scheduling.
Kelonia's lead asset, KLN-1010, is a potentially first-in-class in vivo lentiviral gene therapy designed to generate anti-BCMA (B-cell maturation antigen) CAR-T cells in situ. KLN-1010 is currently enrolling patients in a Phase I dose-escalation study (NCT07075185) in relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma, with the primary objective of evaluating safety, tolerability, and the recommended Phase II dose. Preclinical data presented at AACR 2024 demonstrated that T cell-specific in vivo transduction with KLN-1010 generates BCMA-directed CAR-T cells with anti-myeloma activity, providing the translational rationale for the clinical programme.