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Novartis acquires Tourmaline Bio to enhance its cardiovascular pipeline with Pacibekitug, a promising anti-inflammatory therapy for ASCVD.
Novartis is aiming to complete its cardiovascular pipeline with Tourmaline’s atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD).
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Novartis announced it has entered an agreement to acquire Tourmaline Bio, with Tourmaline’s Pacibekitug the main priority of the acquisition. Novartis will obtain Pacibekitug as a Phase III ready asset and add the medication to its existing cardiovascular pipeline.
Shreeram Aradhye, president of development and chief medical officer at Novartis, mentioned the excitement with the acquisition, saying, “With no widely adopted anti-inflammatory therapies currently available for cardiovascular risk reduction, Pacibekitug represents a potential breakthrough in addressing residual inflammatory risk in ASCVD with a differentiated mechanism of action targeting IL-6. Inflammation is a major driver of cardiovascular disease, and the team at Tourmaline has made significant progress with this asset. We are excited to bring Pacibekitug into the Novartis portfolio and collaborate with the Tourmaline team to advance its development as we diversify our efforts in cardiovascular care."1
Pacibekitug is an investigational anti-IL-6 lgG2 human monoclonal antibody designed to mitigate systemic inflammation implicated in ASCVD, demonstrating high affinity bindings to IL-6 and addressing a critical unmet necessity.1 Pacibekitug’s Phase II Tranquility study, held over a 90-day period, exhibited Pacibekitug’s ability to reduce median high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) levels by 85% at the 90-day mark with monthly 15mg doses. Pacibekitug also showed reduced hs-CRP levels when administering dosages of 50mg each quarter, with an 86% overall reduction, along with comparable incidence rates, adverse events, and serious adverse events to placebo doses. Pacibekitug’s results reflects its potential to address unmet needs in cardiovascular care, through targeting residual inflammatory risk efficiently through once a quarter administration, comparing well to current therapy options.
Terms of the agreement were unanimously approved by each company’s board of directors and stipulate that Novartis will initiate a tender offer purchasing all outstanding shares of Tourmaline common stock through an indirect, wholly owned subsidiary. Current holders of Tourmaline stock are set to receive $48 per share in cash at the time of the transactions closing. Proceeding the acquisitions completion, Novartis aims to merge its subsidiary into Tourmaline, resulting in Tourmaline becoming an indirect wholly owned subsidiary of Novartis.
The deal’s anticipated closing date is set in the fourth quarter of 2025 and is subject to satisfaction or waiver of customary closing conditions, including tender of majority of outstanding shares of Tourmaline’s common stock and regulatory approval receipts. Until the deal is officially closed both Novartis and Tourmaline will operate separately.
Novartis’ acquisition of Tourmaline follows the expansion with partner Argo Biopharmaceutical last week, were Novartis paid $160 million in upfront costs and pledged another $5.2 billion in milestone payments to collaborate on multiple RNAi assists for cardiovascular disease.1Novartis additionally leveraged Argo’s siRNA drug development platform aiming to accelerate the development process of cardiovascular therapy options.
Novartis additionally acquired Anthos Therapeutics for $3.1 billion in February this year, regaining the rights to an anticoagulant antibody abelacimab, along with entering into a multi-target agreement with Profound Therapeutics. Novartis’ deal with Profound aims at developing novel protein therapies for cardiovascular conditions, and includes a $25 million upfront payment, along with upwards of $750 million in milestones per target.1
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