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Novartis to Buy Cadent Therapeutics for Up to $770 Million

Novartis to Buy Cadent Therapeutics for Up to $770 Million

Novartis AG agreed to buy Cadent Therapeutics, a U.S. developer of treatments for cognitive and mood disorders, for as much as $770 million, amid a recent wave of acquisitions in the pharmaceutical industry.

Novartis will pay $210 million up front and privately owned Cadent will be eligible for payments of as much as $560 million upon meeting certain milestones, the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based company said Thursday.

Cadent is developing a drug for schizophrenia, and it has an alliance already with Novartis on a product for treatment-resistant depression.

Earlier this week, AstraZeneca Plc agreed to buy Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc. for $39 billion in cash and shares. Other deals announced recently include Gilead Sciences Inc.’s $1.4 billion purchase of German hepatitis drug maker MYR GmbH and Boehringer Ingelheim’s 1.2 billion-euro ($1.5 billion) acquisition of NBE-Therapeutics.

©2020 Bloomberg L.P.