Novartis to buy Chinook for up to $3.5 billion in boost to late-stage
pipeline
Send a link to a friend
[June 12, 2023]
By Ludwig Burger
(Reuters) -Novartis has agreed to acquire Seattle-based biotech firm
Chinook Therapeutics for up to $3.5 billion to boost its late-stage drug
development line-up with a new treatment for a rare severe kidney
disease.
The transaction, in the form of a merger of a newly-formed Novartis unit
and Chinook, is expected to close in the second half of 2023, the Swiss
drugmaker said in a statement on Monday.
Under the agreement, Chinook shareholders would receive $3.2 billion, or
$40 per share in cash, which represents a premium of 66.7% to Friday's
closing price. Chinook's shares were trading at $40.1 premarket.
Shareholders would also receive a contingent value right worth up to
$300 million, depending on certain regulatory achievements, Novartis
said.
Novartis CEO Vas Narasimhan is eager to raise the prospect of future
blockbuster drugs after leading a push to slash costs and reshape the
drugmaker to focus on fewer therapeutic areas and the most promising
geographic markets.
Narasimhan scored a major win this year when breast cancer drug Kisqali,
one of two new drugs crucial to the group's sales growth, was shown to
help a wider patient group in a study.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2023/Jun/12/images/ads/current/humanesociety_sda022411.png)
The other drug hopeful is iptacopan, which is being trialled against a
rare genetic blood disorder, possibly challenging AstraZeneca's drugs
Soliris and Ultomiris.
[to top of second column]
|
![](../images/061223PIX/health31.jpg)
The company's logo is seen at the new
cell and gene therapy factory of Swiss drugmaker Novartis in Stein,
Switzerland, November 28, 2019. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann/File Photo
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2017/Jul/22/images/ads/current/rohlfs_lda_072017.png) He has previously said he would look
at a range of deal opportunities, but mainly assets worth less than
$5 billion.
Chinook expects to report data from the late-stage study of its the
experimental oral drug atrasentan to treat a kidney disease known as
IgAN in the fourth quarter of this year.
It is also working on zigakibart, another experimental IgAN
treatment that is injected, and plans to start a late-stage trial in
the third quarter.
IgAN is a progressive autoimmune disease that mostly affects young
adults and which can lead to dialysis or kidney transplantation. No
targeted treatment options are available, Novartis said.
In the United States, IgAN affects up to 21 people per million per
year, with a higher rate among Asian populations. IgAN is the most
common cause of kidney failure in Caucasian young adults, it added.
The pharma major is set to become more dependent on its drug
development fortunes as it plans to spin off its generic drugs
division Sandoz in the second half of the year.
(Additional reporting by Miranda Murray and Mariam Sunny; Editing by
Kim Coghill, Sonali Paul and Varun H K)
[© 2023 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.]This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content. |