Street View: Lilly locks in heart treatment portfolio with Verve buyout

Eli Lilly LLY.N will acquire gene-editing startup Verve Therapeutics VERV.O for up to $1.3 billion, the companies said on Tuesday, accelerating a push into experimental cardiovascular therapies

Median PT of brokerages covering LLY is $972.50 - data compiled by LSEG

A BOOST TO GENE EDITING SPACE

Evercore ISI says Lilly acquiring Verve is a welcome boost to the gene editing space, which has been under pressure for the last few years

Cantor Fitzgerald ("overweight", PT:"$975") says the deal is centered primarily on adding VERV's PCSK9 gene editing program, VERV-102, to LLY's cardiovascular portfolio

RBC Capital Markets says the deal reiterates pharma's appetite to have a multi-modality approach to cardiovascular diseases

Leerink Partners ("outperform") says although the acquisition fits with LLY's cardiometabolic and genetic medicine R&D efforts, the path to approval and the ability to justify high reimbursement are unclear