While an acquisition is a good exit for Soleno Therapeutics, the company’s acceptance of Neurocrine Biosciences’ $53-per-share offer came as a surprise to Stifel analysts given the potential growth of Vykat XR, approved last year for extreme hunger in patients with Prader-Willi syndrome.
Neurocrine Biosciences is taking over Soleno Therapeutics for $2.9 billion in a deal that not only expands Neurocrine’s commercial portfolio but also entrenches its position in the endocrinology and rare disease spaces.
Under the terms of the acquisition agreement, announced Monday morning, Neurocrine is snapping up all of Soleno’s outstanding shares for $53 a pop, according to the press announcement. This purchase price represents a 51% premium to Soleno’s volume-weighted average trading price over the last 30 days. At $52.52, Soleno is up 33% before the opening bell.
Pending customary conditions, Neurocrine and Soleno expect to close the transaction within 90 days. The boards of both companies have signed off on the deal.
For Neurocrine, swallowing Soleno “makes very reasonable strategic sense,” analysts at RBC Capital Markets wrote to investors on Monday. With Neurocrine already playing in the pediatric endocrinology space, the company “could potentially find synergies between its expanded salesforce . . . and SLNO’s current capabilities,” they said.
Despite the premium offered by Neurocrine, analysts at Stifel still found the acquisition “surprising,” from Soleno’s perspective.
“While M&A is never a bad thing . . . we’d (sic) admittedly surprised SLNO sold at this price,” they wrote to investors on Monday, adding that they are bullish on the launch of the biotech’s sole product Vykat XR, which was approved in March 2025 to treat extreme hunger in patients with Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS).
Vykat XR is the centerpiece of Monday’s acquisition. The drug uses diazoxide, a molecule that has long been in use for other rare diseases in infants, though not for PWS. Affecting one in every 15,000 live births, PWS is a rare, genetic neurodevelopmental condition that manifests as hyperphagia, an abnormally strong sensation of hunger that can lead to life-threatening obesity.
Vykat XR is the first FDA-approved therapy specifically meant for hyperphagia in PWS. In under a year on the market, Soleno was able to start 1,250 patients on the drug, for a total of $190.4 million in sales.
Prior to the official announcement Monday morning, Neurocrine’s buyout of Soleno was previewed on Sunday night by The Financial Times, citing anonymous sources familiar with the talks. In a note following the FT report, BMO Capital Markets forecasted $450 million in sales this year for Vykat XR, hitting over $2 billion worldwide by the mid-2030s—though Neurocrine will have to put in the work here.
“Acceleration of the commercial launch and penetration will be critical for Neurocrine to drive ROI of the asset and acquisition,” the analysts wrote.
Once the deal closes, Vykat XR will become Neurocrine’s third commercial product. Its first drug on the market is Ingrezza, which was approved in 2017 as the first treatment for tardive dyskinesia. Crenessity followed seven years later, in December 2024, as the first new drug in seven decades for classic congenital adrenal hyperplasia.
Monday’s acquisition also continues pharma’s recent M&A train, coming after big newsmakers like Merck’s $6.7 billion takeover of Terns Pharmaceuticals, Eli Lilly’s $6.3 billion play for Centessa Pharmaceuticals and Biogen’s $5.6 billion bet on Apellis Pharmaceuticals.
