Novartis buys Blackstone's Anthos for up to $3.1bln
Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis has agreed to acquire Anthos Therapeutics, a biopharma firm majority-owned by Blackstone's drug development unit, for up to $3.1 billion, to boost its cardiovascular business.
Anthos was founded by private equity firm Blackstone's Life Sciences business and by Novartis in 2019 to develop, manufacture, and commercialise abelacimab, a treatment to prevent strokes and the recurrence of blood clots.
The deal underlines the Swiss group's commitment to cardiovascular therapies, one of five medical areas that it is focusing on, as its best-selling heart failure drug Entresto loses patent protection this year.
The transaction, expected to close in the first half of this year, also concludes a high-profile development partnership between a drug major and a private equity firm, an emerging funding model that has been explored by the industry.
Novartis will pay $925 million upfront with additional payments of up to $2.15 billion, contingent on development achievements, the companies said in statements.
A Blackstone spokesperson said the deal was the largest sale to date of a majority-owned Blackstone Life Sciences company.
Reuters reported in December 2023 that Blackstone was exploring the sale of Anthos.
Abelacimab belongs to a novel class of drugs known as factor XI inhibitors, designed to replace established blood thinners Eliquis by Bristol Myers-Squibb and Pfizer as well as Xarelto by Johnson & Johnson and Bayer , which are billion dollar sellers.
Bristol-Myers Squibb, together with Johnson & Johnson, are working in late stages of clinical testing on drug candidate milvexian.
Merck & Co is also in the factor XI race with a mid-stage development candidate. Germany's Bayer in 2023 suffered a huge setback in its effort to advance its factor XI drug.
Nicholas Galakatos, chairman of Anthos' board of directors and global head of Blackstone Life Sciences, said the firm was proud to have launched and helped grow Anthos.
"We believe abelacimab has the potential to be a leader in the new class of Factor XI anticoagulants and are pleased to have Novartis as a committed partner to advance the development and commercialization of abelacimab as a potential treatment ... for the millions of patients at risk of strokes," he said.
Anthos is conducting several phase 3 clinical studies, with data from these trials expected in the second half of 2026, Blackstone said.
Novartis said it already holds a small minority equity interest in Anthos, but declined to detail the size of it.
(Reporting by Ludwig Burger, Ariane Luthi and Paolo Laudani Additional reporting by Paul Arnold Editing by Friederike Heine, Barbara Lewis and Kim Coghill)
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Dubai Eye
7 hours ago
- Dubai Eye
Swiss National Bank denies currency manipulation after being put on US watch list
The Swiss National Bank (SNB) said on Friday it would intervene in foreign currency markets where necessary to keep inflation on track after the US added Switzerland to a list of countries being monitored for unfair currency and trade practices. The SNB denied being a currency manipulator after the publication of the US Treasury Report on Thursday, but said it would continue to act in Switzerland's interests as the strong franc helped push inflation into negative terrain last month. "The SNB does not engage in any manipulation of the Swiss franc," it said. "It does not seek to prevent adjustments in the balance of trade or to gain unfair competitive advantages for the Swiss economy." The SNB said it was in contact with US authorities to explain Switzerland's economic situation and monetary policy, and would continue to use interest rates and forex market interventions if necessary to pursue its inflation target of 0-2 per cent. Swiss inflation hit a four-year low in May, with prices falling by 0.1 per cent. The SNB declined to say whether further talks with the United States were planned, but said its monetary policy was "geared towards the needs of Switzerland". Switzerland met two of the US Treasury's concerns regarding trade flows and its current account, but not on foreign currency interventions. SNB forex exchange purchases in 2024 were "minimal," Treasury said. In 2024, the SNB bought only $1 billion in foreign currencies, equivalent to only 0.1 per cent of Swiss GDP, well below the Treasury's threshold of 2 per cent of economic output. The US has also added Ireland to the list, along with previous countries, including Germany, China, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Taiwan and Vietnam, already being monitored at the time of the November report from the Biden administration.
Arabian Post
a day ago
- Arabian Post
A sordid tale of the Blackstone IPO and a jailed NRI private bankster!
Matein Khalid I have had a neurological soft corner for Wall Street's alternative asset manager stocks ever since I resisted the come hither importunings of multiple Morgan Stanley (MS) managing directors before the firm sold its private wealth division in the DIFC to Credit Suisse. Everyone of these MS honchos wanted me to subscribe to the Blackstone IPO in the summer of 2007 at $32. They assured me that the biggest institutional investors in the UAE had all subscribed to the IPO and I was even excluded from a dinner with Stephen Schwartzmann, Blacktone's founder and chairman, since I refused to give MS an order for a $50 million IPO bid. By the summer of 2007, I was convinced that the world was headed into a traumatic global recession and even published an article in English which would have saved my fellow Dubai investors billions of dollars had they bothered to read it for free in the Khaleej Times as far back as January 2007. This article accurately predicted the global financial meltdown a year before it happened and is uploaded above. ADVERTISEMENT Naturally, these Morgan Stanley private bankers despite their fancy titles of MD, Imperial Wizards, King of Kings and Chief Concubine were clueless about the nuances of the global capital markets. I have learnt the hard way that the private banking and wealth business in the Middle East is really the blind leading the blind to the slaughterhouse, invariably with high octane leverage and absurdly high fees for the privileges of helping you gut your financial net-worth in the capital markets they barely understand. I sealed my unpopularity with Morgan Stanely's pinstriped bureaucrats in Dubai when I wrote successive articles, listing myriad reasons why I wanted to short both Morgan Stanley and Blackstone at 32. History or a cursory look at your smartphone will record that MS almost failed in the post Lehman Wall Street panic and the Blackstone IPO plunged from 32 to 4. To compound the insult that Dubai's top NRI investors faced as they haemorrhaged money on the advice of the MS clowns, the top Indian broker on the MS bench (Manoj Prasad) was jailed for fraud, money laundering and trying to bribe a CBI officer in India. So much for Wall Street/Swiss due diligence/ethics when it comes time to fleece the leveraged NRI lambs in the Gulf. My readers know I wrote successive columns in the UAE/British media recommending investors buy Blackstone (BX) shares at 10-12 when the distribution yield was 9%. I even recommended in writing to the chairman of the royal investment office where I was CIO not to allocate $25 million to Abraaj Capital for a board seat that meant squat at 3.5X book value when he could invest in Blackstone at $10 a share, way below book value. That $25 million went to money heaven when Abraaj failed in 2018 after Arif Naqvi's criminal fraud. Blackstone shares I recommended rose from $10 in 2010 to as high as $200. So that $25 million in Abraaj's eternal money heaven would be valued at $500 million if my poor chairman who had never heard of Steve Schwarzman but Magu, our Group CFO, a Karachi accountant, was dazzled by the intellectual brilliance of Arif Naqvi, the Gulf media's financier of the millennium. Moral of the story? If you think Wharton is expensive, try ignorance! Blackstone is now the planet's biggest alt asset manager with $1.2 trillion AUM and is valued at $167 billion on the NYSE. I am a nervous long at $136 since I believe the US private credit market will be gutted in a recession that is now inevitable in Q3, the reason why I went long up the wazoo on TLT at 84 as I expect JayPo to capitulate on rate cuts at the September FOMC. I want to exit my BX long via a covered call strategy before July 4th, our Independence Day. I am pretty sure I will be able to buy BX below 100 when the macro wolf finally swallows Grandma Goldilocks. We saw this movie before in the autumn of 2008 ADVERTISEMENT Also published on Medium. Notice an issue? Arabian Post strives to deliver the most accurate and reliable information to its readers. If you believe you have identified an error or inconsistency in this article, please don't hesitate to contact our editorial team at editor[at]thearabianpost[dot]com. We are committed to promptly addressing any concerns and ensuring the highest level of journalistic integrity.
Al Etihad
3 days ago
- Al Etihad
UAE, Switzerland hold sixth round of political consultations
3 June 2025 16:56 ABU DHABI (WAM)The UAE and the Swiss Confederation held the sixth round of political consultations in Abu session was co-chaired by Lana Zaki Nusseibeh, UAE Assistant Minister for Political Affairs, and Monika Schmutz Kirgöz, Assistant State Secretary for Middle East and North consultations were a substantive and productive opportunity to highlight the continuous development and strength of the UAE-Switzerland bilateral sides shared current achievements and reaffirmed their commitment to further deepening ties across a range of sectors including enterprise, science and technology, artificial intelligence, renewable energy, water, healthcare, and people-to-people particular focus were ways of accelerating trade and investment promotion. In this regard, the two sides welcomed the remarkable growth in non-oil bilateral trade, which increased by more than 40% in UAE and Switzerland also discussed how to unlock the promise and commercial potential of artificial intelligence, while ensuring the ethical, secure, and responsible development of this countries highlighted their support for international institutions, including the UN, in providing mediation, humanitarian assistance, development support, and peacekeeping, among others. They emphasised the importance of upholding international humanitarian law and discussed their efforts to this sides also discussed their cooperation to ensure the 2026 Water Conference, co-hosted by the UAE and Senegal, delivers tangible both sides held an in-depth review of regional and international developments, including the situation in the Middle East and North Africa, as well as in Europe, with a focus on promoting dialogue, de-escalation and diplomatic also reviewed the damaging impact that extremism and hate speech have on communities in all parts of the world, including Europe and the Middle East, and they discussed ways of countering those who promote such harmful consultations were attended by Omran Sharaf, UAE Assistant Minister of Advanced Science and Technology, and Dr. Hessa Abdullah Al Otaiba, UAE Ambassador to the Swiss Confederation. From the Swiss side, Arthur Mattli, Ambassador of Switzerland to the UAE.
