Mar. 13 at 11:09 AM
$MGTX
Lilly recently paid
$2.4B to acquire Orna Therapeutics and its lead CAR-T asset ORN-252.
ORN-252 profile:
- Preclinical (mouse + NHP data)
- CD19 only (B cell diseases)
- No controllability, CAR is always "on"
- IND filed late 2025
MeiraGTx Ribo-CAR-T profile:
- Preclinical (mouse data, multiple targets)
- Oral on/off switch via riboswitch (Orna has nothing like this)
- 3-4x improvement in in vivo potency vs approved CAR-T
- Zero T cell exhaustion vs constitutive CAR
- CD19 + PSMA + mesothelin + HER2 + cytokines
- Completely unlicensed
- Sits on top of a riboswitch platform validated across antibodies, peptides, hormones, gene editing and cell therapy
Lilly paid
$2.4B for the narrow, uncontrolled, single-target version.
The broader, controllable, multi-target version is unlicensed inside a company with advanced clinical programs across multiple therapeutic areas.
That entire company has a market cap of
$640M.
Ribo-CAR-T is one VERY SMALL piece of it.
