The deal, announced June 17, includes a cash offer of $10.50 per share for all outstanding Verve stock. Lilly may also pay as much as $300 million more if Verve’s top drug hits certain research milestones. That would bring the total deal $1.3 billion, The WSJ reported.

Eli Lilly will buy Boston-based Verve Therapeutics, Inc. in a billion dollar deal with plans to advance Verve's new line of experimental cardiac health drugs.

Eli Lilly has struck a deal to buy Crispr gene-editing start-up Verve Therapeutics for up to $1.3bn, the latest acquisition by the world’s most valuable drugmaker as it seeks to boost its pipeline of experimental medicines.