Eli Lilly paid up to $7 billion for Kelonia Therapeutics, betting on iGPS, the company’s in vivo gene therapy delivery platform. The deal came less than three months after Lilly entered the CAR T space in February, making it the company’s second cell and gene therapy commitment within 90 days.
What does Lilly actually get? iGPS is a delivery mechanism, not a drug candidate with a clinical readout. At $7 billion, that’s a bet on infrastructure over a specific pipeline asset. No lead asset stage or peak-sales figure was disclosed.
UCB took the week’s second-biggest deal, buying Neurona Therapeutics for $650 million upfront plus up to $500 million in milestones. The target is NRTX-1001, a single-dose cell therapy in Phase 1/2 evaluation for epilepsy. UCB’s total commitment doesn’t stop at $650 million — it reaches $1.15 billion if all milestones hit.
On the policy front, Trump signed an executive order directing the FDA to issue Commissioner’s National Priority Vouchers to psychedelic drugs with breakthrough designation. The move could cut review timelines from 10-12 months to 1-2 months, a shift analysts are calling the “key next wave” of mental health therapies.
Kailera capped a busy week by breaking biopharma’s all-time IPO record, raising $625 million and bumping Moderna’s 2018 debut into second place.
The $7 billion case depends entirely on iGPS running at scale.
Diana Kowalski