NOVARTIS TO BUY GENE THERAPY FIRM FOR $8.7 BN

Swiss drugmaker Novartis will pay $8.7 billion to acquire AveXis, a US-based gene therapy firm specialising in spinal muscular atrophy. It is Novartis’s second big deal in the gene therapy space after it acquired Spark’s blindness treatment business Luxturna. The company recently sold its stake in the consumer health JV with GlaxoSmithKline to GSK for $13 billion