Novartis has announced plans to acquire The Medicines Company (TMC), in a deal worth $9.7 billion.
The company has confirmed that the purchase was decided on the back of TMC’s recent data from its comprehensive clinical program, consisting of three inclisiran Phase III trials.
In the trials the drug demonstrated potent and durable LDL-C reduction with an excellent safety and tolerability profile, contributing to the idea that the treatment’s potentially first-in-class, twice-yearly dosing schedule will help contribute to improved patient adherence and sustained, lower LDL-C levels.
Under the terms, Novartis is set to buy the US-based biopharmaceutical company for USD 85.00 per share in cash, a decision which has already been unanimously approved by the boards of directors of both companies.
The Swiss pharma giant says that it is “very excited” about the opportunity to add inclisiran to its cardiovascular portfolio, with Marie-France Tschudin, president of the company, saying that “This transformational, new investigational medicine has the potential to meaningfully address one of the largest areas of underserved patient need.
“We believe our strong capabilities and global footprint can help drive broad worldwide access to this much needed treatment.”
The merger will “allow Novartis to continue building pipeline depth in a key therapeutic area – a central pillar of its M&A strategy” and “would add a potentially first-in-class siRNA inhibitor targeting PCSK9 with the potential to fundamentally change the treatment of elevated LDL-C in high risk patients.”
TMC says that inclisiran represents a near-term product launch opportunity and is expected to contribute to Group sales from 2021, as the company is expecting to file regulatory submissions in the US in the fourth quarter of 2019 and in Europe in the first quarter of 2020.
Earlier this month Novartis entered in to another multi-year deal with Sixth Element Capital and the Cancer Research UK (CR UK) Beatson Institute to progress development of novel RAS inhibitors, discovered by the Institute’s Drug Discovery Unit, for hard to treat cancers such as pancreatic.
