Eli Lilly agrees to buy Alnara

Globe Staff

Drug giant Eli Lilly and Co. said it has agreed to buy Alnara Pharmaceuticals Inc., a Cambridge biotechnology company developing protein therapeutics for the treatment of metabolic diseases.

Financial terms of the agreement are not being disclosed, Indiana-based Eli Lilly said in a press release.

Alnara's lead drug candidate is liprotamase, a non-porcine pancreatic enzyme replacement therapy. Liprotamase is under review by the Food and Drug Administration as a potential treatment of exocrine pancreatic insufficiency.

"The acquisition of Alnara provides Lilly with a promising entry into enzyme replacement therapy - an area with unmet medical needs as well as opportunities for novel compounds that give patients additional treatment options," Bryce Carmine, executive vice president of Lilly and president of Lilly BioMedicines, said in a statement.

There are no plans to move Alnara's operations from Cambridge, an Alnara spokesman said. Alnara currently has 25 full-time employees.

Privately held Alnara was co-founded in 2008 by Alexey Margolin, Rich Aldrich, and Christoph Westphal. Alnara's venture investors include Third Rock Ventures, Frazier Healthcare, MPM Capital, Bessemer Venture Partners, and Longwood Founders Fund.

Lilly has bought local companies before. In 2007, it disclosed plans to buy Hypnion Inc., a Lexington company that was working on several insomnia drugs.

Hypnion's Lexington operations were later relocated to Lilly's headquarters in Indianapolis, a Lilly spokesman said.