Dicerna Shares Soar on Takeover by Novo Nordisk

By Colin Kellaher

Shares of Dicerna Pharmaceuticals Inc. rose nearly 80% on Thursday after the biopharmaceutical company agreed to be acquired by collaboration partner Novo Nordisk A/S for about $3.3 billion.

Danish drugmaker Novo will pay $38.25 a share in cash for Dicerna, a roughly 80% premium to Wednesday's closing price of $21.28 for the Cambridge, Mass., company.

Dicerna and Novo in late 2019 struck a deal to develop novel therapies for liver-related cardio-metabolic diseases in a collaboration potentially worth billions of dollars to Dicerna.

Novo on Thursday said it expects to initiate clinical development of the first investigational RNAi therapeutic to emerge from the collaboration next year.

Dicerna shares were recently up 78.6% to $38.

Write to Colin Kellaher at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

11-18-21 1132ET