Eli Lilly agreed to acquire Verve Therapeutics for approximately $1 billion up front, adding a potential treatment for cardiovascular disease to its portfolio.

Eli Lilly will acquire gene-editing startup Verve Therapeutics for up to $1.3 billion, the companies said on Tuesday, sending Verve's shares up 77.7% in premarket trading. Lilly has struck multiple partnership deals with gene-editing companies in the last two years to expand its portfolio beyond its blockbuster weight-loss and diabetes drugs.

In April, Verve tweaked the development of the first PCSK9 inhibitor in its programme (VERVE-101) after a trial revealed issues with liver toxicity that the biotech attributed to the lipid nanoparticle (LNP) delivery system for the drug, an in vivo base-editing candidate developed using Beam's technology platform.