Dicerna Pharmaceuticals

Dicerna Pharmaceuticals is a biopharmaceutical company that focuses on the discovery, development and commercialization of drugs intended for use in RNA interference to selectively suppress genes.

History

2021: Novo Nordisk bought Dicerna Pharmaceuticals for $3.3 billion

On November 18, 2021, Danish drugmaker Novo Nordisk announced the purchase for $3.3 billion of Dicerna Pharmaceuticals, which specializes in therapeutic drugs aimed at combating pathogenic genes. The deal, priced at $38.25 per share, represents a 79% premium on the closing price of trading before its announcement. The transaction, which will be financed mainly from borrowed funds, is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2021.

Novo Nordisk acquired Dicerna Pharmaceuticals for $3.3 billion

Having made the deal, Novo Nordisk, following its competitors, relies on RNA interference (RNA) technology, when genes contribute to the development of diseases, drown out or become ineffective in their negative effects on the human body. Genes play a major role in thousands of diseases, because deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) is transmitted from parents to children. DNA is a double-spiral molecule in which one helix is obtained from the father, the other from the mother, and on each of these helices or chromatids there are nucleotide sequences, some of which are grouped into functional units or genes encoding the primary structure of the protein.

The acquisition of Dicerna Pharmaceuticals accelerates Novo Nordisk's research in RNA interference and expands the ability to use RNi technology. We are developing our successful collaboration and combining current developments in RNi and intracellular drug delivery with our deep capabilities in understanding disease biology and tissue addressing with peptides and proteins, we have the potential to expand our line and create fateful precision medicines for humans, living with chronic diseases such as diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular disease, and rare diseases such as endocrine disorders or circulatory disorders, said Marcus Schindler, executive vice president and chief scientific officer of Novo Nordisk.

Since 2019, Novo Nordisk and Dicerna Pharmaceuticals have been members of a research collaboration aimed at finding and developing RNA interference therapy using Dicerna Pharmaceuticals-patented GalXC platform technology. The collaboration between the companies covers a study of more than 30 species with the potential to create several clinical candidates for the treatment of diseases such as chronic liver disease, non-alcoholic steatohepatitis, type 2 diabetes, obesity and rare other diseases. Novo Nordisk is the world's largest manufacturer of diabetes drugs. Management expects to begin clinical development of the first therapeutic drug that will emerge as a result of this collaboration in 2022. The acquisition will not affect Novo Nordisk's forecast for the whole year, but it is estimated that it will have a negative impact on the growth of operating profit in 2022 by about 3%.^[1]

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