{"entity":{"id":"orna-therapeutics","kind":"company","name":"Orna Therapeutics (Eli Lilly)","aka":[],"tldr":"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.","asOf":"2026-09-04","links":[{"label":"Lilly acquisition","url":"https://investor.lilly.com/news-releases/news-release-details/lilly-acquire-orna-therapeutics-advance-cell-therapies"}],"tags":["frontier"],"related":[],"cancers":["multiple-myeloma"],"sections":["cell-therapy"],"technologies":["in-vivo-car-t"],"targets":["cd19","bcma"],"drugs":[],"companies":["eli-lilly"],"institutions":[],"pathways":[],"terms":[],"trials":[],"people":[],"bottlenecks":[],"keyPapers":[],"journals":[],"dependsOn":[],"notes":[],"hq":"Watertown, MA","country":"US","companyType":"cell-therapy","website":"https://www.ornatx.com","investors":[],"funding":[]},"route":"/companies/orna-therapeutics/","neighbours":{"cancer":[{"id":"multiple-myeloma","kind":"cancer","name":"Multiple myeloma","route":"/cancers/multiple-myeloma/"}],"section":[{"id":"cell-therapy","kind":"section","name":"Cell Therapy","route":"/fronts/cell-therapy/"}],"technology":[{"id":"in-vivo-car-t","kind":"technology","name":"In vivo CAR-T","route":"/technologies/in-vivo-car-t/"},{"id":"self-amplifying-rna","kind":"technology","name":"Self-amplifying and circular RNA therapeutics","route":"/technologies/self-amplifying-rna/"}],"target":[{"id":"bcma","kind":"target","name":"BCMA","route":"/targets/bcma/"},{"id":"cd19","kind":"target","name":"CD19","route":"/targets/cd19/"}],"company":[{"id":"eli-lilly","kind":"company","name":"Eli Lilly (incl. Loxo)","route":"/companies/eli-lilly/"}],"bottleneck":[{"id":"b-manufacturing-cell-therapy","kind":"bottleneck","name":"Manufacturing cost and time for living and radioactive medicines","route":"/bottlenecks/b-manufacturing-cell-therapy/"}],"idea":[{"id":"idea-reg-in-vivo-cart-off-the-shelf-vial","kind":"idea","name":"In vivo CAR-T as a vial on the shelf: a cost and access trial in lymphoma","route":"/ideas/idea-reg-in-vivo-cart-off-the-shelf-vial/"},{"id":"idea-moon-in-vivo-cart-generic-price","kind":"idea","name":"In vivo CAR-T manufactured and priced like a generic biologic","route":"/ideas/idea-moon-in-vivo-cart-generic-price/"},{"id":"idea-bio1-mrna-intrabodies","kind":"idea","name":"Instruct tumour cells to make antibodies against their own oncoprotein","route":"/ideas/idea-bio1-mrna-intrabodies/"},{"id":"idea-bio1-omomyc-mrna","kind":"idea","name":"mRNA-delivered MYC decoy proteins instead of MYC inhibitors","route":"/ideas/idea-bio1-omomyc-mrna/"}]}}