Eli Lilly $LLY agreed to acquire Engage Biologics Inc., a preclinical biotechnology company developing a non-viral DNA delivery platform, for up to $202 million in cash, including an upfront payment and additional payments tied to development milestones, the companies said.
Tethosome, the proprietary platform Engage is bringing to the deal, pairs lipid nanoparticle-delivered DNA with an mRNA-encoded component intended to enhance where and how strongly the payload is expressed in the body. Three long-standing obstacles in the DNA delivery field — how effective a dose is, how well patients tolerate it, and whether it can be administered more than once — are what Engage designed the platform to overcome. The San Carlos, California-based company has not publicly disclosed any specific therapeutic programs.
"We are excited to begin our next chapter with Lilly, which has demonstrated unmatched speed and a uniquely forward-thinking approach to genetic medicine," Engage co-founder and CEO Will Olsen said in a statement. "We believe that the combination of Engage's platform with Lilly's significant capabilities will meaningfully accelerate development of new genetic therapies."
Founded in 2021, Engage has received backing from SciFounders, Pioneer Fund, Cal Innovation Fund, Y Combinator, and the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, as well as non-dilutive funding from the Gates Foundation and the National Institutes of Health, the company said.
Gene therapies have not yet reached Lilly's commercial portfolio, though the company has made expanding its genetic medicines pipeline a clear strategic priority. Among the programs furthest along in development are lepodisiran, which uses siRNA to lower Lp(a) in patients at elevated cardiovascular risk, and ixoberogene soroparvovec, a one-time treatment for wet age-related macular degeneration that came to Lilly through a series of acquisitions, according to Biospace.
The Engage deal marks Lilly's seventh acquisition of 2026. Earlier this year, the company agreed to acquire Ajax Therapeutics, a blood cancer specialist, for up to $2.3 billion, and bought Kelonia Therapeutics, a developer of in vivo CAR-T cell therapies, for up to $7 billion. Lilly also acquired sleep drug developer Centessa Pharmaceuticals for $7.8 billion in early April.