Novartis and Avidity have announced that their boards of directors have reached agreement on the acquisition of Avidity for $72 per share, a total transaction value of approximately $12 billion. The premium is approximately 46% above the closing price and approximately 62% above the 30-day average. The acquisition is a great bonus on top of the 61% net return of the Genetics Fund since the start of the second half of 2025.
Yesterday Novartis announced that the board of directors of Avidity Biosciences and Novartis have agreed to acquire Avidity for $72 / share, representing around $12 billion.
The offer of $72 per share, represents a premium of approximately 46% over Avidity’s closing share price on October 24 of $49.15 and approximately 62% over Avidity’s 30-day volume weighted average price of $44.42.
Cardiology and License Deals separated into SpinCo
As part of the deal a spin-out company ‘SpinCo’ will be created and the following assets will be transferred to SpinCo:
Rights to continue the development of Avidity’s proprietary RNA-platform, including next-generation technology improvements, for applications in the cardiology field.
Holders of Avidity shares will receive on top of the $72 per share:
and/or
License deals terms
Nice addition to performance Genetics fund
The Avidity acquisition is a nice bonus on top of the 61% gain of the Genetics Fund (as of last Wednesday’s valuation date) since the start of the second half of 2025
Novartis gains sought after muscle disease products
Novartis will gain a pipeline in neuromuscular conditions and access to a differentiated RNA-targeting delivery platform. The agreement includes three late-stage medicine candidates for the treatment of Duchenne muscular dystrophy and two other severe muscle diseases.
Right of first refusal triggered
The transfer of assets to SpinCo includes certain Avidity assets that trigger a right of first negotiation with a license partner of Avidity that has been notified concurrently with the announcement.
Aescap percentage
At the closing of Nasdaq on Friday, before the announcement of the news, the position of Avidity in the Aescap Genetics fund represented 5,9%. Around 10% of the Aescap Life Sciences fund is currently invested in the Aescap Genetics fund.
The fund owns shares of Avidity from the inception of the fund, and were acquired for $14.7.
Reference to Q3 quarterly report
We wrote about a potential acquisition of Avidity by Novartis, including a nice anecdote, in our Genetics Q3 newsletter, see below.
Acquisition Rumors
•There are rumors of a potential acquisition by Novartis or another multinational. One online post showed a helicopter landing on a tall office building, with the caption noting that Avidity has offices there.
•During a recent breakfast with the CEO in New York, she remarked with a smile that their office does not have a helipad on the roof.
Johnson & Johnson acquires Intra-Cellular Therapeutics, a company from our portfolio focused on innovative treatments for neurological disorders. The acquisition confirms the value of our selection methodology and delivers an attractive return for our investors.
Johnson & Johnson (J&J) today announced the acquisition of Intra-Cellular Therapeutics. J&J is acquiring this Aescap Life Sciences portfolio company for $132 per share. This represents a 39% premium to Friday’s closing price of $94.87. The deal is valued at $14.6 billion.
A 39% premium may not seem like much. However, there was already some takeover speculation in the share price, which rose earlier as a result. Also, the higher the absolute value, the lower the premium in percentage terms.
Aescap started building a position in Intra-Cellular in June 2023 at a price of $61. Prior to the takeover announcement, the position represented 7.5% of the Life Sciences Fund’s portfolio.
Intra-Cellular Therapies develops medicines for the treatment of neurological disorders. Currently, it has one medicine on the market: Caplyta. Approved for the treatment of bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. Approval is pending for the treatment of depression. It also has several clinical trials underway. These include psychosis associated with Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease.
Roche acquires Poseida Therapeutics at a premium of more than 215%. Poseida, specialized in cell therapy for cancer treatment, was a position in the Aescap Genetics fund. The substantial premium underscores the value of innovative cell and gene therapy companies in our funds.
Today Roche announced the acquisition of Aescap Genetics’ portfolio company Poseida Therapeutics for $9 per share, a premium of 215% over yesterday’s closing share price of $2.86. Poseida shareholders also receive a CVR (contingent value rights) of $4, consisting of 3 payments of respectively $2, $ 1 and $1 upon the achievement of specific future milestones. The total acquisition price is $1.5 billion.
Aescap Genetics began building a position in Poseida Therapeutics in August. The position accounted for 1% of the Genetics fund portfolio prior to the take-over announcement. We intended to build the position to 4% of the fund pending the upcoming clinical trial data in December. This acquisition therefore came early in our build-up process.
Poseida signed a collaboration with Roche in 2022 on several of the medicine candidates it has in its pipeline. Therefore, Roche was able to see the clinical trial data from those products before others.
San Diego based Poseida Therapeutics is developing so called next-generation allogeneic CAR-T cancer treatments. While another form of CAR-T therapy is already on the market by companies such as J&J, Gilead and BMS, these treatments are associated with high costs, lengthy treatment processes, manufacturing limitations and serious side effects. The newer allogeneic CAR-Ts address these challenges and showing improvements in all areas.
Aescap also has other allogenic CAR-T companies in its portfolio of 22 companies.
