Arrowhead Research Soars After Acquiring Novartis' RNAi Portfolio

Arrowhead Research Corp ARWR was trading higher on Thursday after the announcement that they acquired Novartis' NVS entire RNAi research and development portfolio.

According to Street Insider, "Novartis has been working in the RNAi field for over a decade and their developments in proprietary oligonucleotide formatting and modifications are some of the best we've seen. We anticipate this acquisition will provide us with substantially expanded freedom to operate, proprietary technology that appears to enhance the activity of RNAi triggers, access to non-delivery Alnylam RNAi IP for 30 targets, and three programs that went through the rigorous Novartis vetting process," said Christopher Anzalone, Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer of Arrowhead Research.

Arrowhead was particularly interested in Novartis's pipeline of three candidates that have developed pre-clinical data.

Arrowhead will pay Novartis $10 million in cash as $25 million in common stock.

Shares of Arrowhead Research recently traded at $7.80, up 3.8 percent.