Eli Lilly said Tuesday that it will pay $200 million to gene-editing firm Beam Therapeutics for Beam’s stake in Verve Therapeutics, another gene-editing company focused on treatments for heart disease.
The deal, which also includes future milestone payments, is evidence that despite the pressure on biotechnology stocks there is still interest in very early cutting-edge technologies among big pharmaceutical players. It also provides Beam, which announced on Oct. 19 that it would cut 100 jobs, or 20% of its workforce, to save cash, a large infusion of money.
“This is like a true win-win-win deal, which is rare in this business, but it’s really, really exciting to see,” said John Evans, Beam’s CEO, in an interview with STAT.