AstraZeneca will acquire CinCor Pharma, a Massachusetts-based clinical-stage biopharma focused on developing novel treatments for resistant and uncontrolled hypertension as well as chronic kidney disease.
Key to the deal is CinCor’s lead pipeline candidate, baxdrostat, an aldosterone synthase inhibitor (ASI) for blood pressure lowering in treatment-resistant hypertension. Although baxdrostat recently failed in a phase 2 trial in patients with uncontrolled hypertension, two additional phase 2 trials are ongoing in hypertensive patients with primary aldosteronism and in chronic kidney disease.
Trial fail aside, AstraZeneca says the drug "represents a potentially leading next-generation ASI as it is highly selective for aldosterone synthase and spares the cortisol pathway in humans."
But gaining baxdrostat also presents the opportunity for AstraZeneca to combine it with its own diabetes drug, Farxiga. Sale of Farxiga, a first-in-class, oral, once-daily SGLT2 inhibitor, have soared after it was shown to also benefit patients with heart failure and kidney disease.
Per the deal, AstraZeneca will pay $26 per CinCor share in cash, or $1.3 billion. Combined, the upfront and maximum potential contingent value payments represent, if achieved, a transaction value of approximately $1.8 billion.
