Novo Nordisk to Acquire Dicerna for $3.3 Billion to Accelerate RNAi Therapeutics Development

On November 18, 2021, Dicerna Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a company focused on the development of RNAi therapies, announced that it had reached a definitive agreement with Novo Nordisk. Novo Nordisk will acquire Dicerna for approximately $3.3 billion. This acquisition will accelerate Novo Nordisk's RNAi drug development and expand the application of RNAi technology.

Since 2019, Novo Nordisk and Dicerna have been research partners, leveraging Dicerna's proprietary GalXC RNAi platform technology to discover and develop RNAi therapies. The collaboration between Novo Nordisk and Dicerna includes the exploration of more than 30 hepatocyte targets, with the potential to provide a range of clinical candidates for diseases including chronic liver disease, nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), type 2 diabetes, obesity, and rare diseases. Novo Nordisk anticipates initiating clinical development of the first RNAi therapy arising from this collaboration in 2022.

RNAi Therapy Lowers the Expression of Pathogenic Proteins by Targeting and Silencing mRNA that Guides Protein Synthesis. It Can Be Used to Target Pathogenic Genes That Conventional Antibodies and Small Molecule Drugs Cannot Reach. Dicerna’s Technological Platform, Through Modifications of RNAi Molecules, Enables Effective Delivery of the Therapy to Multiple Tissues Such as the Liver, Central Nervous System, and Muscles, Which is Expected to Expand the Therapeutic Areas of RNAi Therapy.

▲Dicerna's RNAi Technology Platform (Image Source: Dicerna Official Website)

References:

[1] Novo Nordisk to Acquire Dicerna. Retrieved November 18, 2021, from https://investors.dicerna.com/news-releases/news-release-details/novo-nordisk-acquire-dicerna

(Original text has been abridged)

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