Kirkland Advises Eli Lilly on Acquisition of Kelonia Therapeutics

Kirkland & Ellis advised Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE: LLY) on a definitive agreement to acquire Kelonia Therapeutics, a clinical-stage biotechnology company pioneering in vivo gene delivery. Under the terms of the agreement, Lilly will acquire Kelonia, and Kelonia shareholders will receive up to $7 billion in cash, inclusive of an upfront payment of $3.25 billion, and subsequent payments upon achievement of certain clinical, regulatory and commercial milestones. The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions, including customary regulatory approvals, and is expected to close in the second half of 2026.

Kelonia has developed a proprietary in vivo gene placement system that uses specially engineered lentiviral-based particles designed to efficiently and selectively enter T-cells inside the body, allowing the patient's own body to generate chimeric antigen receptor T-cell (CAR-T) therapies that can treat underlying disease. Kelonia's lead program, KLN-1010, is an investigational, one-time intravenous gene therapy that generates anti-B-cell maturation antigen (BCMA) CAR-T cells, targeting the BCMA protein expressed on the surface of multiple myeloma cells.

Read the transaction press release

The Kirkland team was led by corporate lawyers Allie Wein, Sarkis Jebejian, Brian Junquera, Steven Choi, Amir Farahani, Aaron Eisen and Bailey Ellis; tax lawyers Dean Shulman, Liam Murphy and Daniel Henry; antitrust & competition lawyers Andrea Murino and Samantha Morelli; technology & IP transactions lawyers Shellie Freedman, Rami Sherman and Julia Monti; and executive compensation lawyers Robert Fowler, Sally Ye, Lilibeth Clelo-Garcha and Cassandra Zárate.