JPM on tenterhooks over Novartis-Cytokinetics merger rumour

With M&A news coming thick and fast on the first day of the JP Morgan Healthcare conference in San Francisco, attendees were left hanging as proceedings closed with no news on a rumoured offer by Novartis to acquire Cytokinetics.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Novartis is in “advanced talks” to buy Cytokinetics, which is currently riding high after its cardiovascular drug aficamten hit the mark in a phase 3 trial in obstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) as 2023 came to an end.

Citing unnamed sources, the newspaper has said that Novartis is close to a deal that would value Cytokinetics at $10 billion, after a bidding war that reportedly also included AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson.

Shares in Cytokinetics spiked 15% after the report was published, having already almost doubled after the aficamten study was announced, driving its valuation north of $8 billion, but at the time of writing none of the parties were commenting on the speculation.

If confirmed, it would crown a frenetic period of dealmaking for Novartis at the start of 2024, coming after a $1.2 billion alliance with artificial intelligence in drug discovery specialist Isomorphic Labs, a $425 million takeover of Dutch biotech Calypso and its IL-15 inhibitor for autoimmune diseases, and a licensing deal with China’s Shanghai Argo Biopharmaceutical covering two RNAi interference (RNAi) therapies in the cardiovascular and metabolic diseases area.

Aficamten is a would-be competitor to Bristol-Myers Squibb’s Camzyos (mavacamten), which is currently the only FDA-approved treatment for HCM and has been tipped as a future blockbuster, making $142 million in the first nine months of 2023, following its FDA approval in April 2022.

HCM is an inherited disorder in which the heart muscle becomes thickened and can obstruct blood flow, and affects around 280,000 people in the US, of whom around two-thirds have the obstructive form of the disease. It is one of the most common reasons for sudden cardiac death in people who are younger than 35.

Cytokinetics has said that the broad efficacy and encouraging safety profile of aficamten give it a chance of becoming the “cardiac myosin inhibitor of choice among physicians and patients.”

Boston Scientific snaps up Axonic for $3.7bn

Meanwhile, in amongst the biotech dealmaking at JPM, medical device giant Boston Scientific agreed a $3.7 billion acquisition of medtech company Axonics, which makes devices for urinary and bowel dysfunction based sacral neuromodulation (SNM) therapy.

SNM therapy is a minimally invasive procedure used in the treatment of overactive bladder (OAB) and faecal incontinence, delivering mild electrical pulses to the sacral nerve to restore communication between the brain and the bladder.