Novartis to buy Medicines Company for $9.7bn

Swiss pharmaceuticals giant Novartis announced over the weekend it would dish out $9.7 billion (8.8 billion euros) to acquire US firm Medicines Company, in a move aimed at boosting its cardiovascular treatment portfolio.

Novartis said Sunday it had agreed to pay $85 per Medicines Co. share, which was 41 percent over the US company's closing price on Friday. The move will mark the latest in a line of acquisitions aimed at enhancing the Swiss company's stable of cutting-edge drugs to treat things like cancer. In snapping up Medicines Co., the pharma giant said it will lay its hands on a promising cholesterol drug called inclisiran, described by company chief Vas Narasimhan as a "potentially transformational medicine".

Inclisiran, which recently completed its phase III study, fights "bad" LDL cholesterol in patients with atherosclerosis, or plaque buildup in their arteries.