US Stock Market Move | Eli Lilly and Company (LLY.US) rose more than 3% and will acquire the immune cell engineering company Orna Therapeutics.

On Monday, Eli Lilly (LLY.US) rose more than 3%, reaching $1095.87. On the news front, on February 9th, Orna Therapeutics announced that it had reached a final acquisition agreement with Lilly. Lilly will fully acquire Orna to strengthen its presence in the field of cell therapy and gene drugs. Orna shareholders could receive up to $2.4 billion in cash, including upfront payments and subsequent payments after reaching specific clinical development milestones. According to the agreement, the core target of this acquisition is Orna's circular RNA technology platform and in vivo CAR-T pipeline. Orna focuses on innovative therapies that combine engineered circular RNA with novel lipid nanoparticle (LNP) delivery systems, allowing patients' own bodies to generate therapeutic cells that target the root causes of diseases. Its technological advantage lies in the ability to achieve more sustained expression of therapeutic proteins, breaking through the limitations of current RNA and cell therapies. It is reported that Orna's core project, ORN-252, is an in vivo CAR-T therapy targeting CD19 that meets the conditions for clinical application. It is mainly used to treat B cell-mediated autoimmune diseases, which is an area of focus for Lilly.