The deal, announced early Sunday afternoon, will see Novartis gain access to Avidity’s neuroscience assets, while the San Diego biotech spins out a new company to shepherd its early-stage precision cardiology programs.
Nine and a half months after Johnson & Johnson kicked off 2025 with the $14.6 billion acquisition of Intra-Cellular Therapies, Novartis inked the year’s second largest deal, picking up neuromuscular drug developer Avidity Biosciences for around $12 billion.
Under the terms of the deal, announced Sunday, Avidity stockholders will receive $72 per share, for a premium of 46% to the San Diego-based company’s Friday closing price of $49.15.
Coming over to Novartis in the acquisition are several late-stage RNA programs, including candidates for Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy (FSHD) and myotonic dystrophy type 1 (DM1). Avidity earlier this month announced a “positive outcome” from a pre–biologics license application meeting with the FDA for its lead candidate for DMD, del-zota, for which a submission is planned in the first quarter of next year. Del-zota is in development for patients with gene mutations amenable to exon 44 skipping.
Novartis will also gain access to the remainder of Avidity’s pipeline and programs in neuroscience, as well as the biotech’s RNA-targeting delivery platform, according to Avidity’s Sunday press release.
Separately, Avidity’s early-stage precision cardiology programs will be broken out into a new publicly traded company, the biotech said in the same release. The SpinCo will be led by Kathleen Gallagher, currently Avidity’s chief program officer, as CEO. The Novartis acquisition will follow this separation.
“Avidity has expanded the possibilities of what RNA therapeutics can deliver to patients by advancing innovative science and creating an organization with a strong commitment to providing access to our potential medicines,” Avidity CEO Sarah Boyce said in a statement. “We are confident that this transaction with Novartis maximizes value for our investors and will support the global expansion of our neuroscience pipeline.”
In Novartis’ own press release Sunday, CEO Vas Narasimhan said, “Avidity’s pioneering [antibody oligonucleotide conjugates] platform for RNA therapeutics and its late-stage assets bolster our commitment to delivering innovative, targeted and potentially first-in-class medicines to treat devastating, progressive neuromuscular diseases.”
The transaction, which is expected to close in the first half of 2026, is projected “to unlock multi-billion-dollar opportunities with planned product launches before 2030,” according to Novartis’ announcement.
