Life science news 27 April 2026: Eli Lilly’s $7 billion in vivo CAR-T deal, Trump’s psychedelics executive order and a first-ever gene therapy for hearing loss headline a landmark week across global life science.
Eli Lilly announced on 20 April its acquisition of Boston-based Kelonia Therapeutics for up to $7 billion, comprising $3.25 billion upfront and up to $3.75 billion in milestone payments. Kelonia has developed a proprietary in vivo gene placement system that uses engineered lentiviral particles to programme a patient’s own T-cells inside the body to produce CAR-T cancer therapies, eliminating the need for the complex and costly cell extraction and manufacturing process required by existing approved CAR-T treatments. The deal is the largest in vivo cell therapy acquisition to date and marks Lilly’s entry into the cell therapy space.
President Trump signed an executive order on 18 April directing the FDA and Drug Enforcement Administration to accelerate access to psychedelic therapies for serious mental illness, including treatment-resistant depression and PTSD. The FDA subsequently confirmed it will issue national priority review vouchers to companies studying psilocybin for depression and methylone for PTSD, and cleared the first ever US clinical trial of noribogaine hydrochloride for alcohol use disorder. The order also allocates $50 million to support state-level psychedelic research programmes, with potential approvals as early as summer or autumn 2026.
The FDA approved Otarmeni (lunsotogene parvec-cwha) on 23 April, the first ever gene therapy for a genetic form of hearing loss affecting around 50 newborns per year in the US. The approval was granted using a Commissioner’s National Priority Voucher, compressing the review timeline significantly.
Merck and Google Cloud announced a landmark AI partnership on 22 April at the Google Cloud Next conference in Las Vegas, valued at up to $1 billion over the next decade. The multi-year deal will deploy Google’s Gemini Enterprise agentic AI platform across Merck’s entire drug development, manufacturing, commercial and corporate operations. Merck said the partnership had already cut the time and cost of compiling reimbursement dossiers by half in some markets and will now be scaled globally.
In further life science news 27 April 2026, the UK’s new NICE cost-effectiveness threshold increase is already delivering results for NHS patients. NICE has approved vorasidenib under the new threshold, making it the first new treatment for adult brain tumours in the UK in two decades. The NICE threshold was raised from £20,000 to £30,000 per QALY to £25,000 to £35,000 per QALY from April 2026 as part of the UK-US pharmaceutical trade deal, the first such increase since NICE was established in 1999. A second cancer drug, regorafenib for GIST cancer, has also been approved under the revised threshold, with more approvals expected to follow.
Also this week the Centessa Pharmaceuticals acquisition by Eli Lilly, announced on 31 March for up to $7.8 billion, received shareholder approval this week. The deal hands Lilly ownership of UK-founded Centessa’s orexin receptor 2 agonist pipeline, led by cleminorexton for narcolepsy and idiopathic hypersomnia, and is expected to close in Q3 2026. The acquisition is a significant milestone for the UK life sciences sector, with Centessa having been established in London in 2021.
Revolution Medicines raised $2 billion in a heavily oversubscribed follow-on equity offering this week, building on the momentum from its Phase 3 pancreatic cancer data reported on 13 April showing daraxonrasib nearly doubled overall survival versus chemotherapy. The company plans to use the proceeds to fund its FDA submission and prepare for a potential commercial launch.
Pharma sector Q1 2026 earnings season is well underway, with Johnson and Johnson having reported $24.1 billion in Q1 sales. Novo Nordisk is scheduled to report on 6 May, and Eli Lilly’s results are also expected imminently, with both companies expected to provide their first commercial readouts on oral GLP-1 prescription volumes, a closely watched indicator of how quickly the market is shifting from injectable to pill-based obesity and diabetes treatments.
That concludes this week’s life science news 27 April 2026 roundup. Check back next week for the latest life science news from across the global pharmaceutical and biotech industry, and visit www.lifesciencedaily.news for daily updates.
This weekly digest is produced by the Life Science Daily News editorial team. All stories are selected and written independently.
