According to a report from the Wall Street Journal, Swiss drugmaker Novartis AG is close to clinching an agreement to acquire U.S. biotechnology firm The Medicines Co for around $7 billion.
In the potential deal, Novartis has agreed to pay $85 per share. The deal is likely to be announced later this week, said WSJ citing people familiar with the matter at hand.
According to the report, going by a fully diluted share count, the deal is worth nearly $10 billion.
Novartis declined to comment.
The Medicines Co did not respond to requests for comments.
The potential deal is likely to broaden Novartis’ offering of heart medicines while shoring up growth threatened by patent expirations.
According to two banking sources, Novartis has been hunting for a $5 billion acquisition in the United States.
The Medicines Co’s top drug candidate is cholesterol-lowering drug – Inclisiran – for heart patients.
“Novartis has historically had a strong cardiovascular drug franchise, but lost ground when Diovan, once a $6 billion-per-year seller, lost patent protection in 2012 and left the company without an immediate, innovative follow-up product.”
Since then, Novartis has been building up its portfolio, which now includes Entresto, a $1 billion seller for heart failure, as well as an experimental RNA-targeting molecule from Ionis Pharmaceuticals that it licensed earlier this year for $150 million.
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