Shares of Verve Therapeutics (VERV 81.50%) were skyrocketing 75.7% higher as of 10:50 a.m. ET on Tuesday. And for good reason. Eli Lilly (LLY -1.99%) and Verve Therapeutics announced a "definitive agreement for Lilly to acquire Verve."
Lilly offered $10.50 per share in cash, payable at the closing of the transaction. This represents a premium of around 113% to the 30-day volume-weighted average trading price of Verve stock for the period ending June 16, 2025.
In addition, Verve shareholders will receive one nontradable contingent value right (CVR) per share owned that could entitle them to receive another $3 per share when the first patient is dosed with VERVE-102 for atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) in a U.S. phase 3 clinical trial within 10 years of the closing or termination of the CVR. The total purchase price if the CVR is paid amounts to around $1.3 billion.
Why Lilly wanted Verve
Verve is a leader in base editing, a type of gene editing that supports precise editing of a single base within DNA. The company's crown jewel is VERVE-102, a base-editing therapy that's currently being evaluated in a phase 1b clinical study for treating ASCVD.
Although VERVE-102 is still in early-stage testing, Lilly liked what it saw with the experimental therapy. Ruth Gimeno, Lilly's group vice president for diabetes and metabolic research and development, said, "VERVE-102 has the potential to be the first in vivo gene editing therapy for broad patient population and could shift the treatment paradigm for cardiovascular disease from chronic care to one-and-done treatment."
Image source: Getty Images.
Is it too late to buy Verve Therapeutics stock?
Usually, when an acquisition of a clinical-stage drugmaker is announced, investors don't have much incentive to buy the small biotech stock before the deal closes. In this case, though, the CVR that's part of Lilly's purchase agreement could be appealing to some investors willing to bet on the success of VERVE-102. Although there's a risk that the base-editing therapy will fail before it advances to phase 3 testing, it's not too late to buy Verve stock.
