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Swiss drugmaker Novartis AG is close to acquiring U.S. biotech Avidity Biosciences for over $70 per share, Bloomberg News reported on Sunday, citing a person familiar with the matter.
Reuters could not immediately confirm the report.
Reporting by Dheeraj Kumar in Bengaluru; Editing by Aidan Lewis
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Kayla Webster
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Isomorphic Labs, the London-based, drug discovery-focused spin-out of Google AI R&D division DeepMind, today announced that it’s entered into strategic partnerships with two pharmaceutical giants, Eli Lilly and Novartis, to apply AI to discover new medications to treat diseases.
The deals have a combined value of around $3 billion. Isomorphic will receive $45 million upfront from Eli Lilly and potentially up to $1.7 billion based on performance milestones, excluding royalties. Novartis, meanwhile, will pay $37.5 million upfront in addition to funding “select” research costs and as much as $1.2 billion (once again excluding royalties) in performance-based incentives over time.
“We’re thrilled to embark on this partnership and apply our proprietary technology platform,” DeepMind co-founder and Isomorphic CEO Demis Hassabis was quote as saying in a press release. “The focus we share on advancing groundbreaking drug design approaches and appreciation of state-of-the-art science makes [these] partnership[s] particularly compelling.”
Fiona Marshall, president of biomedical research at Novartis, added in a statement: “Cutting-edge AI technologies … hold the potential to transform how we discover new drugs and accelerate our ability to deliver life-changing medicines for patients. This collaboration harnesses our companies’ unique strengths, from AI and data science to medicinal chemistry and deep disease area expertise, to realize new possibilities in AI-driven drug discovery.”
Isomorphic, which Hassabis launched in 2021 under DeepMind parent company Alphabet, draws on DeepMind’s AlphaFold 2 AI technology that can be used to predict the structure of proteins in the human body. By uncovering these structures, the hope is that researchers can identify new target pathways to deliver drugs for fighting disease.
The tech isn’t perfect. A recent article in the journal Nature pointed out that AlphaFold occasionally makes obvious mistakes and, in many cases, is more useful as a “hypothesis generator” rather than a replacement for experimental data. But the scale at which the model can generate reasonably accurate protein predictions is beyond most methods that came before.
Researchers recently used AlphaFold to design and synthesize a potential drug to treat hepatocellular carcinoma, the most common type of primary liver cancer. And DeepMind is collaborating with Geneva-based Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative, a nonprofit pharmaceutical organization, to apply AlphaFold to formulating therapeutics for Chagas disease and Leishmaniasis, two of the most deadly diseases in the developing world.
The latest version of AlphaFold can generate predictions for nearly all molecules in the Protein Data Bank, the world’s largest open access database of biological molecules, DeepMind announced in October. The model can also accurately predict the structures of ligands — molecules that bind to “receptor” proteins and cause changes in how cells communicate — as well as nucleic acids (molecules that contain key genetic information) and post-translational modifications (chemical changes that occur after a protein’s created).
Already, Isomorphic is applying the new AlphaFold model — which it co-designed with DeepMind — to therapeutic drug design, helping to characterize different types of molecular structures important for treating disease.
The pressure’s on for Isomorphic to start generating a profit. In 2021, the company recorded a £2.4 million (~$3 million) loss as it ramped up hiring ahead of opening its second office location in Lausanne, Switzerland.
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Kyle Wiggers
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Two weeks ago, bluebird bio secured Food and Drug Administration approval for its gene therapy for sickle cell disease, a significant milestone for the roughly 100,000 people in the U.S. who suffer from the condition.
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By Adria Calatayud
Novartis raised its full-year earnings guidance for the third time this year after it reported higher net profit and sales for the third quarter, boosted by strong sales of key drugs.
The Swiss pharmaceutical giant said Tuesday that it now expects core operating profit to grow this year by a percentage in the mid to high teens range. It had previously anticipated a growth rate from low double percentage digits to mid teens excluding Sandoz, the generics unit that was spun off earlier this month.
Novartis reiterated its expectation for net sales growth of a high single digit in 2023.
For the third quarter, the company made a net profit of $1.76 billion compared with $1.57 billion for the same period last year.
Net sales for the quarter grew to $11.78 billion from $10.49 billion.
“Our growth drivers, including Kesimpta, Entresto, Kisqali and Pluvicto, continue to perform well in the market,” Chief Executive Vas Narasimhan said.
Excluding exceptional items, core operating income from continuing operations was up 21% at $4.41 billion.
Write to Adria Calatayud at adria.calatayud@dowjones.com
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By Adria Calatayud
Novartis said an interim analysis from a phase 3 trial to evaluate its investigational iptacopan drug in patients with kidney disease nephropathy achieved positive results, meeting its primary goal.
The Swiss pharmaceutical company said Monday that an analysis of study data at nine months showed a clinically meaningful and statistically significant reduction in protein in urine. The company said this demonstrated superiority of iptacopan relative to placebo in reducing protein in urine.
The safety profile of the drug was consistent with previously reported data, Novartis said.
Novartis said it plans to review the trial’s interim results with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to enable a potential regulatory submission for accelerated approval.
The study will now continue to assess the iptacopan’s ability to slow disease progression over two years, the company said. Results from the primary goal at the end of the study are expected in 2025.
Write to Adria Calatayud at adria.calatayud@dowjones.com
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By Adria Calatayud
Novartis said the planned spinoff of its Sandoz generic pharmaceuticals and biosimilars business is expected to occur on or around Oct. 4.
The Swiss pharmaceutical giant said Friday that the separation will take place through a proposed distribution of Sandoz shares to its existing shareholders. Novartis shareholders will get one Sandoz shares for every five Novartis shares held and one Sandoz American depositary receipts–or ADRs–for every five Novartis ADRs, the company said.
Novartis had previously said it expected the spinoff to happen early in the fourth quarter.
The Sandoz spinoff remains subject to approval by Novartis’s shareholders. Novartis has scheduled an extraordinary general meeting for Sept. 15 to vote on the proposed distribution of Sandoz shares and a reduction in its own share capital in connection with the spinoff, it said.
Following the separation, Sandoz would be listed in SIX Swiss Exchange, with an ADR program in the U.S., Novartis said.
Write to Adria Calatayud at adria.calatayud@dowjones.com
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https://www.barrons.com/articles/stock-market-movers-98396473