Switzerland’s Novartis buying San Diego biotech Avidity in $12 billion cash deal

Novartis staff celebrate the company s years in San Diego outside the Genomics Institute of the Novartis Research Foundation in Torrey Pines Photo courtesy of the company Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis communicated Sunday that it will buy San Diego-based Avidity Biosciences in a billion all-cash deal Founded in Avidity is growing a new class of RNA therapeutics called antibody oligonucleotide conjugates to treat genetic neuromuscular diseases such as Duchenne muscular dystrophy Avidity s pioneering AOC platform for RNA therapeutics and its late-stage assets bolster our commitment to delivering innovative targeted and potentially first-in-class medicines to treat devastating progressive neuromuscular diseases announced Vas Narasimhan CEO of Novartis The Avidity association has built robust programs with industry-leading delivery of RNA therapeutics to muscle tissue We look forward to growing these programs to meaningfully change the trajectory of diseases for patients Narasimhan explained Avidity stockholders will receive per share in cash at closing representing a premium of over the stock s closing price on Friday Novartis in recent times celebrated years of operations in the San Diego region and earlier this year stated plans to open a billion global research hub here