Novo Nordisk has agreed to buy Forma Therapeutics in a deal valued at $1.1 billion to expand its blood disorders portfolio.
Massachusetts-based Forma is focused on sickle cell disease (SCD) and rare blood disorders.The deal will help Novo complement and accelerate its scientific presence and pipeline in haemoglobinopathies — a group of disorders in which there is abnormal production or structure of the haemoglobin protein in the red blood cells.
The acquisition includes Forma's lead development candidate, etavopivat, an investigational oral, once-daily, selective pyruvate kinase-R (PKR) activator. The drug is being developed to improve anaemia and red blood cell health in people with SCD. It is currently being evaluated in a global phase 2/3 clinical trial in patients with SCD, and in a phase 2 trial in patients with transfusion-dependent SCD and another inherited haemoglobinopathy called thalassemia.
According to Novo, the transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2022.