AstraZeneca will acquire CinCor Pharma in a deal that aims to boost the British pharma giant’s cardiorenal pipeline, the company announced Monday.
The $1.8 billion deal will give AstraZeneca CinCor’s baxdrostat — an aldosterone synthase inhibitor (ASI) used to target treatment-resistant hypertension — to its repertoire.
The move reflects the company’s further investment in cardiorenal disease, as baxdrosat also brings some potential to be used in combination with Farxiga, AstraZeneca’s diabetes drug that has shown some promise in treating heart failure and kidney disease.
“Excess levels of aldosterone are associated with hypertension and several cardiorenal diseases, including chronic kidney disease and coronary artery disease and being able to effectively reduce this would offer a much-needed treatment option for these patients,” Mene Pangalos, EVP of biopharmaceuticals R&D at AstraZeneca, said in a statement.
AstraZeneca’s top revenue stream comes from its cancer drugs, but its heart, kidney and diabetes drugs are a close second, according to the company’s latest earnings report. Those treatments made up $6.9 billion of its total $33 billion revenue in the first three quarters of 2022.
CinCor CEO Marc de Garidel noted in a statement that the acquisition will accelerate the development timeline for baxdrostat and potentially expand the “breadth of benefits patients with cardiorenal diseases might obtain from baxdrostat, if approved.”
AstraZeneca will put forth a tender offer of $26 per share to acquire all of CinCor’s outstanding shares. The company will also pay $1.3 billion in cash upfront as well as maximum potential contingent value payments, totalling nearly $1.8 billion.
Baxdrostat originally started out as a Roche project, when the company aimed to develop a drug that would block aldosterone production. That hormone is linked to higher blood pressure, but efforts to develop medications for it have been somewhat spotty.
After Roche put the candidate on the back burner, CinCor picked it up in 2019 and reported promising results in a Phase I study last year.
One Phase II trial published last November showed that participants with treatment-resistant hypertension experienced a decrease in systolic blood pressure when taking a 2 mg dose of baxdrostat. However, another Phase II study wasn’t as clear-cut, with baxdrostat missing the primary endpoint.
AstraZeneca and CinCor have said a Phase III trial is planned for this year to further investigate.AstraZeneca also made the announcement less than two months after expanding its oncology portfolio by purchasing Neogene Therapeutics for $320 million.
