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Yahoo
01-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Novartis to acquire Regulus in deal for kidney disease drug
This story was originally published on BioPharma Dive. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily BioPharma Dive newsletter. Novartis will pay $800 million upfront to acquire Regulus Therapeutics, a San Diego biotechnology company that launched nearly two decades ago with plans to make drugs capable of targeting small strips of nucleic acid known as microRNA. Announced Wednesday, the acquisition will hand the Swiss pharmaceutical firm a drug prospect called farabursen, which recently completed a Phase 1b study in people with autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease, or ADPKD. Per deal terms, Regulus shareholders will receive $7 in cash per share, a premium of more than 100% to the stock's closing price Tuesday. Additionally, Novartis has committed to pay an additional $7 per share via a so-called contingent value right that's linked to the achievement of an unspecified regulatory milestone. Regulus was launched in 2007 as a joint venture between Alnylam Pharmaceuticals and Ionis Pharmaceuticals, building on a paper published in Nature on how a kind of synthetic oligonucleotide could silence microRNA, which plays a role in genetic regulation. After early successes, such as a 2010 partnership with Sanofi and a 2012 deal with AstraZeneca, the biotech hit setbacks from which it struggled to recover. It also had difficulty finding the right application for its drugmaking technology, trying its hand at a hepatitis C treatment that didn't pan out. Since 2021, Regulus shares have traded below $4 per share. The drug at the heart of its deal with Novartis, called farabursen, entered the clinic in 2022. Farabursen targets miR-17, which researchers have identified as potentially relevant to kidney disease. People with ADPKD have few treatment options, relying on the drug tolvaptan to slow the rate of kidney function decline, as well as pain relievers and blood pressure-lowering drugs. Acquiring Regulus is one of several investments Novartis has made in kidney disease, most notably a $3 billion deal in 2023 for Chinook Therapeutics that netted it Venrafia, which won accelerated approval to treat IgA nephropathy earlier this month. It's also developing Fabhalta, already cleared in IgAN, for several other kidney-related conditions. 'This is a meaningful addition to our renal portfolio as we continue driving innovation in kidney care, following our recent approvals of treatments for IgAN and C3G,' Shreeram Aradhye, Novartis' chief medical officer, wrote in a LinkedIn post. The pharma hinted earlier this year that it would continue to be active in dealmaking. Its president of biomedical research, Fiona Marshall, told BioPharma Dive that it was looking for early-stage assets. Novartis previously identified ADPKD as a target in its renal portfolio. 'So often, it's having our own program that makes us really like the project, and then if we see somebody else is doing it better than us externally, we'll still bring that in,' she said in January. Recommended Reading Novartis to acquire kidney disease biotech Chinook for up to $3.5B
Yahoo
30-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Novartis to buy kidney disease drug maker Regulus in up to $1.7 billion deal
By Bhanvi Satija and Mariam Sunny (Reuters) -Novartis has agreed to buy Regulus Therapeutics for up to $1.7 billion, giving the Swiss drugmaker access to an experimental drug to treat a life-threatening kidney disease. Under the deal terms, Novartis will pay $7 per share in cash upfront, or about $800 million, and another $7 per share to Regulus shareholders if the lead drug candidate, farabursen, gets regulatory approval, the California-based biotech said on Wednesday. The offer represents a premium of about 108% to the stock's last closing price. Shares of Regulus more than doubled to $7.8. The deal, expected to bolster Novartis' lineup of kidney disease drugs in development, will also give the company access to Regulus' proprietary platform to develop treatments targeting a type of genetic material called microRNAs. Regulus' drug, farabursen, is expected to enter a late-stage study this year to test it for the treatment of autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease, which causes fluid-filled cysts in the organ. The deal is a "sensible bolt-on" for Novartis, said Barclays analyst Emily Field. Farabursen is a potential improvement over poorly tolerated standard-of-care therapy, tolvaptan, Field said. Otsuka Pharmaceutical's tolvaptan is the only treatment approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in the country for the condition, but it carries the risk of potentially fatal liver injury. Novartis has recently received U.S. approvals for its drugs Fabhalta and Vanrafia for the treatment of different types of kidney disorders. It had bought Chinook Therapeutics for $3.5 billion in 2023 for its candidate to treat a rare kidney disease. Its agreement with Regulus comes when policy and regulatory changes for the healthcare sector in the U.S. have been stalling large lifescience deals in what was initially expected to be a stellar year for mergers and acquisitions. Novartis said on Tuesday it expects adjusted earnings to grow by "a low double-digit" percentage in 2025. Sign in to access your portfolio
