Novo Nordisk in €1bn deal for RNA-based heart disease therapies

Novo Nordisk has struck a €1bn deal for a German biotech developing ribonucleic acid-based therapies to treat heart disease, as the Danish group invests the windfall from its best-selling diabetes and weight loss drugs.

The acquisition of Cardior Pharmaceuticals will give Novo Nordisk a treatment for heart failure in mid-stage trials that targets the root causes of heart disease.

Novo Nordisk, the maker of blockbuster diabetes and weight loss drugs Ozempic and Wegovy, said the transaction was an “important step” in its strategy to “establish a presence in cardiovascular disease”.

Sales of its diabetes and obesity drugs have sent Novo Nordisk’s market capitalisation soaring but the company has also set a goal of diversifying, including into the treatment of cardiovascular diseases.

To do this, the company has launched trials of its weight-loss treatments to show that they can also tackle diseases linked to obesity. Trial results published in November showed that Wegovy led to an 18 per cent decline in risk of death for patients with obesity and cardiovascular disease.

It also has drugs in late stage phase 3 trials for cardiovascular disease, chronic kidney disease and high blood pressure, and it is using acquisitions to boost its expertise in the area. Chief executive Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen told the Financial Times this month that it was assessing deals for biotech companies with mid-stage drugs.

Martin Holst Lange, head of development at Novo Nordisk, said that Cardior’s drug had the “potential to become a first-in-class therapy designed to halt or partially reverse the course of disease for people living with heart failure”.

The acquisition also gives Novo Nordisk more expertise in RNA-based therapies, a growing field in pharmaceuticals. Novo Nordisk purchased Dicerna Pharmaceuticals, a company focused in RNA-based therapeutics, for $3.3bn in 2021.

Biotech companies have in recent years explored how making changes to the RNA — a molecule present in all living cells that has a similar structure to DNA — could lead to new drugs.

In general, RNA makes proteins by using amino acids as code. Some RNA does not code for proteins and Cardior’s drugs target these molecules, which are important in regulating cell activity but can lead to diseases if they stop working normally.

Cardior’s drug has shown improvements in patients with heart failure compared with a placebo, according to early trials. Novo Nordisk plans to start a second mid-stage trial of the Cardior drug to assess its effectiveness in patients with cardiac hypertrophy, where the walls of the heart muscle become thick and inhibit blood pumping.

“We aim to not just alleviate disease symptoms, but to address the root causes of heart failure and restore the normal functioning of the heart,” said Thomas Thum, Cardior’s co-founder.