Novo to acquire heart failure drug in $1B deal for Cardior

2024-03-25

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Dive Brief:

Novo Nordisk will pay as much as $1 billion to acquire RNA drug developer Cardior and its experimental treatment for heart failure, the companies announced Monday.

Cardior’s treatment, dubbed CDR132L, is currently being tested in a mid-stage study involving 280 people with heart failure who previously experienced a heart attack. Results are expected by September, according to a U.S. clinical trial database.

In addition to that study, Novo said it plans to start another Phase 2 trial in heart failure patients whose heart muscle has become thick and stiff, also known as cardiac hypertrophy. Novo, which will pay an undisclosed upfront payment to Cardior per deal terms, expects the acquisition to close in the second quarter.

Dive Insight:

Historically, Novo hasn’t been the most active biotechnology company acquirer. But that’s changed somewhat over the past several years, as it’s invested in both RNA technology as well as in expanding its pipeline of drugs for cardiometabolic conditions.

The latter investment has coincided with a boom in sales of Novo’s diabetes and obesity medicines Ozempic and Wegovy, helping make Novo the second most valuable pharmaceutical company in the world. Within the obesity field, the company has struck deals for Inversago Pharma, Embark Biotech and EraCal Therapeutics.

With Cardior, meanwhile, Novo adds a heart disease treatment a company executive described as potentially “first-in-class.” An oligonucleotide, the drug is designed to block a specific kind of microRNA and help restore normal heart muscle cell function.

Phase 1b trial results were published in the European Heart Journal in January 2021 and showed that Cardior’s drug was well tolerated among the 28 treated study participants. The first patient in Cardior’s ongoing Phase 2 study was dosed in January 2022.