Eyeing RNAi platform more than pipeline, Novo buys Dicerna for $3.3B

With its interest in acquiring partner Dicerna driven by the biotech’s RNAi platform rather than its pipeline, Novo was able to strike a premium-priced deal while paying no more than Dicerna’s mid-summer market value, before a pivotal readout drove down its share price.

Novo Nordisk A/S (CSE:NOVO B; NYSE:NVO) will pay $38.25 per share, or about $3.3 billion, to acquire Dicerna Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ:DRNA), gaining the biotech’s GalXC platform addressing disease-related genes expressed in the liver, as well as its GalXC-Plus platform for non-hepatic genes. The price is an 80% premium over Dicerna’s close Wednesday at $21.28...