Eli Lilly has completed its acquisition of Verve Therapeutics, the Boston gene editing company whose programmes aim to reduce cardiovascular risk for life with a single treatment. The deal pays Verve shareholders 10.50 dollars a share in cash upfront, about 1 billion dollars, plus a contingent value right worth up to 3 dollars a share tied to the start of a phase 3 trial of the lead programme, taking the total value to as much as 1.3 billion dollars.
The asset at the centre is VERVE-102, an in vivo base editing therapy that switches off the PCSK9 gene in the liver. It is in a phase 1b trial in people with heterozygous familial hypercholesterolaemia and certain patients with premature coronary artery disease, and it holds FDA fast track designation. Two follow on programmes target triglyceride rich lipoproteins and lipoprotein(a).
For Lilly the logic is portfolio construction. Its cardiometabolic franchise is built on chronic therapy, incretins taken for years; Verve offers the opposite shape, a one time intervention sold once. Buying the platform at a price analysts at William Blair called a bargain against their fair value estimate is a cheap option on the possibility that cardiovascular care shifts from chronic management to one and done treatment, the phrase Lilly’s own research leadership used when the deal was announced.