# Orna Therapeutics (Eli Lilly)

Source: https://onco.cc/companies/orna-therapeutics/  
OnCo record `orna-therapeutics` (Company). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

Circular-RNA in vivo CAR company bought by Eli Lilly for about $2.4B in February 2026.

## Summary

Orna Therapeutics, based in Watertown, Massachusetts, is the circular-RNA in vivo CAR company that Eli Lilly agreed to buy for about 2.4 billion dollars on 9 February 2026. Its engineered circular RNA, called oRNA, is delivered in lipid nanoparticles to induce CAR expression in T cells inside the body without lymphodepletion; the lead programme ORN-252 targets CD19 for autoimmune disease, and a BCMA in vivo CAR for multiple myeloma is preclinical. OnCo links it to multiple myeloma, to in vivo CAR-T and circular RNA therapeutics, to CD19 and BCMA as targets, to Eli Lilly, and to ideas on in vivo CAR-T as a vial on the shelf priced like a generic biologic. Manufacturing cost and time for living medicines is the bottleneck it aims to remove. Whether RNA-made CARs last long enough to clear a cancer is the open question.

## Fields

- Kind: Company
- Last checked: 2026-09-04
- Tags: frontier
- HQ: Watertown, MA
- Type: cell-therapy
- Website: https://www.ornatx.com

## Sources

- Lilly acquisition: https://investor.lilly.com/news-releases/news-release-details/lilly-acquire-orna-therapeutics-advance-cell-therapies

## Connected records

- cancers: [Multiple myeloma](https://onco.cc/cancers/multiple-myeloma/)
- fronts: [Cell Therapy](https://onco.cc/fronts/cell-therapy/)
- technologies: [In vivo CAR-T](https://onco.cc/technologies/in-vivo-car-t/), [Self-amplifying and circular RNA therapeutics](https://onco.cc/technologies/self-amplifying-rna/)
- targets: [BCMA](https://onco.cc/targets/bcma/), [CD19](https://onco.cc/targets/cd19/)
- companies: [Eli Lilly (incl. Loxo)](https://onco.cc/companies/eli-lilly/)
- bottlenecks: [Manufacturing cost and time for living and radioactive medicines](https://onco.cc/bottlenecks/b-manufacturing-cell-therapy/)
- ideas: [In vivo CAR-T as a vial on the shelf: a cost and access trial in lymphoma](https://onco.cc/ideas/idea-reg-in-vivo-cart-off-the-shelf-vial/), [In vivo CAR-T manufactured and priced like a generic biologic](https://onco.cc/ideas/idea-moon-in-vivo-cart-generic-price/), [Instruct tumour cells to make antibodies against their own oncoprotein](https://onco.cc/ideas/idea-bio1-mrna-intrabodies/), [mRNA-delivered MYC decoy proteins instead of MYC inhibitors](https://onco.cc/ideas/idea-bio1-omomyc-mrna/)

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