Novo Nordisk agrees to acquire Corvidia Therapeutics for $2.1bn

Under the terms of the agreement, the Danish pharmaceutical firm will acquire all outstanding shares of Corvidia Therapeutics for an upfront payment of $725m in cash. The company will fund the upfront payment from its financial reserves.

Corvidia, an AstraZeneca spin-off, is a privately held, clinical-stage company engaged in the research and development of transformative therapies for cardio-renal diseases. Sofinnova Partners has been the sole seed financial investor since 2015 and is the largest shareholder in the company.

Corvidia CEO Marc de Garidel Corvidia said: “This acquisition recognises the important scientific work Corvidia has been doing over the last five years in cardio-renal diseases with a focus on inflammation.

“In Novo Nordisk, we have found a partner that has deep expertise in cardiometabolic disease, a proven track record of success in conducting cardiovascular outcomes trials (CVOT), and the infrastructure to accelerate the development of ziltivekimab in order to help patients who need it most.”

Corvidia is developing ziltivekimab a fully human monoclonal antibody directed against Interleukin-6 (IL-6), aiming to reduce the risk of major adverse cardiovascular events in chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients with atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) and inflammation.

Novo Nordisk said that the acquisition of Corvidia Therapeutics and its lead candidate ziltivekimab is aligned with its commitment to expand its footprint across cardiometabolic diseases.

Ziltivekimab has been evaluated in two early-stage trials in CDK patients and is currently being evaluated in a phase 2b dose-finding clinical trial (RESCUE) in patients who have an increased risk of ASCVD with CKD and inflammation.

RESCUE is designed as a dose-finding trial to enable a global phase 3 cardiovascular outcomes trial to assess the impact of ziltivekimab on major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) in a patient population with elevated cardiovascular risk.

Novo Nordisk executive vice president and chief science officer Mads Krogsgaard Thomsen said: “We believe that ziltivekimab has the potential to become a first- and best-in-class treatment to lower the burden of cardiovascular disease in a patient population that is at high risk of major adverse cardiovascular events.”