In the top November M&A by deal value, Novo Nordisk entered into a definitive agreement with under which it will acquire Dicerna Pharmaceuticals for $38.25 per share in cash, which represents a total equity value of $3.3bn and a premium of 75% to Dicerna’s stock average in the 10 days prior to the acquisition announcement. Dicerna is developing and commercializing medicines that are designed to leverage ribonucleic acid interference to silence selectively genes that cause or contribute to disease using its proprietary GalXCand GalXC-Plus RNAi technologies. Novo Nordisk and Dicerna have been parties to a research collaboration since 2019 to discover and develop RNAi therapies using the GalXC RNAi platform technology. Financing reached $8.8bn in biopharma, $572m in device, and $473m in diagnostics.
Deals In Depth: November 2021
Six $1bn+ alliances were penned in November. Topping the list was a potential $2.7bn deal between Neurocrine Biosciences and Sosei Group for the development and commercialization of candidates containing certain sub-type selective muscarinic M1, M4, or dual M1/M4 receptor agonists discovered by Sosei Heptares and in development for neurological disorders, which Neurocrine intends to study in the treatment of schizophrenia, dementia, and other neuropsychiatric disorders. The company gains exclusive worldwide rights to develop, manufacture, and commercialize the candidates, while Sosei retains the rights to develop M1 agonist programs in Japan in all indications, with Neurocrine receiving co-development and profit share options.
