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Novartis AG signage on a building on the company’s headquarters campus in Basel, Switzerland, Monday, Jan. 8, 2023.
Bloomberg | Bloomberg | fake images
Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis has agreed to buy biotechnology company Biosciences of greed for about $12 billion, the company said Sunday.
Novartis will pay Avidity shareholders $72 per share in cash, a 46% premium over the company’s closing price on Friday.
The deal is expected to close in the first half of 2026, after Avidity spins off parts of its business, including its early-stage precision cardiology programs, the company said in a statement.
“The Avidity team has built robust programs with industry-leading delivery of RNA therapies to muscle tissue,” Novartis CEO Vas Narasimhan said in the statement. “We hope to develop these programs to significantly change the trajectory of patients’ diseases.”
Novartis has raised its forecast for its compound annual sales growth rate between 2024 and 2029 from 5% to 6% as a result of the acquisition.
Bloomberg News first reported The companies were close to reaching an agreement, citing a person familiar with the matter. Novartis and Avidity did not immediately respond to CNBC’s requests for comment.
Avidity specializes in the development of an innovative class of ribonucleic acid (RNA) therapies called antibody oligonucleotide conjugates. RNA-based therapies are a relatively new class of drugs that work by altering the way genes are expressed to treat or prevent diseases.
The deal with Avidity comes as Novartis ramps up its research and development division. Earlier this year, the company pledged to invest $23 billion to build out its U.S.-based infrastructure, including plans to build a second research and development center in San Diego.
The pharmaceutical giant has also closed two key deals with Anthos Therapeutics and Regulus Therapeutics this year to boost its development and manufacturing of drugs for cardiovascular and kidney diseases.
Avidez shares closed at $49.15 on Friday. The stock, which has a market capitalization of about $7.2 billion, is up nearly 70% since the beginning of the year. Novartis shares closed Friday at $130.36.
