Novartis to buy US drugmaker Endocyte for $2 bn

Novartis agreed to buy US drugmaker Endocyte for $2.1 billion, snapping up a potential blockbuster therapy for prostate cancer as the Swiss pharmaceutical giant broadens its arsenal against tumors.

Novartis will pay $24 a share for Endocyte, 54 percent more than its last closing price, the Basel-based company said on Thursday. Endocyte makes radioactive drugs coupled with targeting molecules to deliver treatments to tumors.

The approach is one of three key areas, along with cell and gene therapies, where Novartis is keen to expand, and Chief Executive Officer Vas Narasimhan signalled that he still hasn’t finished raising the drugmaker’s profile in those fields. The company remains interested in bolt-on acquisitions, he said.

“We believe we need to move into advanced-therapy platforms,” Narasimhan said in an interview on Bloomberg Television. The Endocyte transaction “will give us the global footprint, capability and portfolio to really own” the so-called radioligand sector, he said.

Endocyte’s experimental prostate cancer therapy, known as Lu-PSMA-617, has progressed to final-stage testing in men who have limited options for treatment and may reach the market in 2021, Novartis said.

It uses a small molecule to aim a radioactive cancer drug at a target, called PSMA, that’s found in high numbers on the surface of diseased cells, according to Endocyte.

Endocyte’s experimental prostate cancer therapy, known as Lu-PSMA-617, has progressed to final-stage testing in men who have limited options for treatment and may reach the market in 2021, Novartis said.