The biopharmaceutical firm, Arrowhead Research (ARWR, Financial), has spent years finding treatment to various deadly diseases through the RNAi therapeutics platform, and just recently it has announced that it wants to acquire the RNAi assets from Novartis (NVS, Financial) to take a giant leap in this research and developmental platform.Ă‚
What is the RNAi Therapy platform?
In the current therapy procedures being followed by pharma companies, the therapy works on generation of monoclonal antibodies which binds to the disease causing proteins to deactivate them. On the other hand, this exclusive RNAi therapy procedure tries to kill the disease causing proteins by targeting or silencing certain genes of the human body.
It has been proved that quite often this therapy is likely to be more effective in disease treatment than the normal therapeutics mode of treatment of disease.
What did the company announce?
As per the terms of the acquisition agreement, Arrowhead will pay $35 million to Novartis for acquiring its assets linked to the RNAi research and developmental wing, as well as three candidates that is based on the same platform which are in the product pipeline and for which the latter has already generated preclinical data.
According to the announcement, Arrowhead has already paid $7 million in cash and will pay around $3 million more in a cash deal. The remaining $25 million is to be paid through common stock within a period of 30 days of such a transaction. Also, Novartis is also entitled to receive milestone payments and royalties on future sales targets of products that result from the acquisition deal.
Arrowhead stands to make a potential gain from such a transaction since it would easily gain access to the therapeutic assets of Novartis as well as its specific patents and patent applications. During the press release, CEO and President of Arrowhead, Christopher Anzalone, stated – “This is an important deal for us. Novartis has been working in the RNAi field for over a decade and their developments in proprietary oligonucleotide formatting and modifications are some of the best we’ve seen. We anticipate this acquisition will provide us with substantially expanded freedom to operate, proprietary technology that appears to enhance the activity of RNAi triggers, access to non-delivery Alnylam RNAi IP for 30 targets, and three programs that went through the rigorous Novartis vetting process…”He further added – “We now have additional flexibility to optimize each new candidate using the most effective RNAi-trigger design and modifications. We look forward to incorporating these novel technologies into future drug candidates.”
Parting thoughts
Arrowhead’s latest acquisition of Novartis RNAi assets and patents might aid in making it a leader in the therapeutics platform and could help in staying ahead of its immediate competitors. Presently the RNAi therapeutics research and developmental leader is Alnylam (ALNY, Financial), and this recent move of Arrowhead would significantly improve its position when compared to the current market leader. Let’s stay tuned to study how this recent deal with Novartis offers better shape to Arrowhead’s future.
