Novartis Enters into Agreement to Acquire Chinook Therapeutics

Chinook Therapeutics, a biopharmaceutical company, has announced that it has entered into an agreement and plan of merger with Novartis AG. As per the deal, Novartis will acquire Chinook for a total of $3.2 billion. Unanimously approved by the board of directors, the agreement could reach $3.5 billion upon the achievement of future regulatory milestones.

“We are pleased that Novartis recognizes the significant value that the Chinook team has built with our pipeline of clinical and preclinical programs for patients with rare, severe chronic kidney diseases,” said Eric Dobmeier, president, CEO of Chinook Therapeutics. “We believe this transaction is great news for kidney disease patients and the programs we have built at Chinook. Through this merger, Novartis can apply its substantial resources to pursue broader development efforts and commercialization of atrasentan, zigakibart (BION-1301) and other programs in our pipeline to build its global renal therapeutic area.”