Home / Novartis News: Avidity Acquisition, Immunology Breakthroughs, & Key Updates

Novartis News: Avidity Acquisition, Immunology Breakthroughs, & Key Updates

By: Jasmin Espinas

Updated: November 10, 2025

Published: October 27, 2025

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Novartis, one of the largest pharmaceutical companies globally by revenue, continues to sharpen its focus on high-impact therapeutics. In recent Novartis news, the company has opened a new plant in California.

This article looks at the Avidity deal, current clinical progress, and additional updates from the company.

Novartis Opens New Cancer Drug Factory in Carlsbad

Novartis has opened a 10,000-square-foot factory in Carlsbad, California, to ramp up production of its targeted cancer drugs.

The site will produce radioligand therapies and support faster delivery to patients across the western U.S., Alaska, and Hawaii.

The factory boosts the supply of treatments like Pluvicto for prostate cancer and Lutathera for rare gastrointestinal tumors.

Novartis to Buy Avidity Biosciences for $12 Billion

Novartis said on October 26 that it would buy Avidity Biosciences, a San Diego biotech focused on RNA-targeted treatments for muscle disorders.

Novartis has entered into an agreement to acquire Avidity, a San Diego-based, publicly traded biopharmaceutical company, committed to delivering a new class of therapeutics enabling RNA delivery to muscle called Antibody Oligonucleotide Conjugates (AOCs™) for serious, genetic… pic.twitter.com/SWmGbAx7HL

— Novartis News (@NovartisNews) October 26, 2025

This all-cash transaction is valued at $12 billion and aimed at increasing Novartis’s ability to treat genetic neuromuscular diseases as well as advance its overall xRNA strategy.

The agreement centers on Avidity’s Antibody Oligonucleotide Conjugates (AOCs™) platform, which is a proprietary technology for the targeted delivery of RNA therapeutics to muscles.

It has been a delivery barrier that has hampered the development of therapy for diseases like DMD or FSHD.

The deal also brings three clinical-stage programs, all of which are focused on separate neuromuscular diseases with no approved treatments.

Novartis expects to launch multiple AOC-based products before the end of the decade.

Ahead of the closing, Avidity will spin off its early-stage precision cardiology programs into a stand-alone entity called “SpinCo.”

This separation is a condition for closing and allows Novartis to focus entirely on the muscle-directed RNA portfolio.

The transaction is anticipated to close in the first half of 2026, subject to regulatory approvals and completion of the SpinCo separation.

Novartis has already made a series of targeted acquisitions this year, such as buying Anthos Therapeutics for $3.1 billion and Regulus Therapeutics for $1.7 billion.

It also entered a partnership with Matchpoint Therapeutics in July.

Novartis Showcases Immunology Progress at ACR Congress

In other Novartis news, the company confirmed on October 25 that it will present data from 27 abstracts from its Immunology pipeline and portfolio at the 2025 American College of Rheumatology (ACR) Convergence.

Novartis highlights commitment to scientific innovation at #ACRConvergence 2025 with data presentations in Sjogren’s disease and systemic lupus erythematosus. https://t.co/ZerrLss8nS #ACR2025 #NovartisNews pic.twitter.com/a3gOpZRzH7

— Novartis News (@NovartisNews) October 25, 2025

Novartis plans to present data from both company-led and investigator-run trials, covering treatments in early and late stages of development.

One of the main highlights will be the Phase III results from the NEPTUNUS-1 and NEPTUNUS-2 studies.

These are testing the same experimental antibody in different patient groups. The findings could support future regulatory filings.

In addition, Novartis will share early biomarker data from an ongoing Phase 1/2 study of rapcabtagene autoleucel, a CAR-T in development for severe treatment-resistant systemic lupus erythematosus.

These data may help identify which patients are most likely to respond to cell-based approaches.

Additional updates will include new findings on Cosentyx in several rheumatology conditions.

To summarize the details, Novartis will present an investor conference call on Thursday, October 30, 2025, at 11:30 a.m. Eastern Time.