Arrowhead Research has acquired Novartis’ entire RNAi R&D portfolio and associated assets. The acquisition includes certain patents and patent applications related to RNAi therapeutics, an exclusive license in the RNAi field to other patents and patent applications owned or controlled by Novartis, assignment of a third party license, three preclinical RNAi candidates, and other related assets.

Novartis received $7 million in cash and will receive an additional payment of $3 million in cash and $25 million in Arrowhead common stock. Novartis is also eligible to receive milestones and royalties on sales of future products related to the agreement.

“This is an important deal for us. Novartis has been working in the RNAi field for over a decade and their developments in proprietary oligonucleotide formatting and modifications are some of the best we’ve seen. We anticipate this acquisition will provide us with substantially expanded freedom to operate, proprietary technology that appears to enhance the activity of RNAi triggers, access to non-delivery Alnylam RNAi IP for 30 targets, and three programs that went through the rigorous Novartis vetting process,” said Christopher Anzalone, Ph.D., president and chief executive officer of Arrowhead. “We now have additional flexibility to optimize each new candidate using the most effective RNAi-trigger design and modifications. We look forward to incorporating these novel technologies into future drug candidates.”