AstraZeneca has agreed to acquire CinCor Pharma, a Waltham, Massachusetts-based clinical-stage bio/pharmaceutical company, in a $1.8-deal billion ($1.3 billion upfront plus potential payments of contingent value rights).  

CinCor’s lead candidate is baxdrostat in Phase II development for treating treatment-resistant hypertension, primary aldosteronism (a disorder in which adrenal glands make too much of a hormone,  aldosterone, which regulates blood pressure) and chronic kidney disease. Baxdrostat is an oral small- molecule inhibitor of aldosterone synthase, the enzyme responsible for the synthesis of aldosterone in the adrenal gland. A Phase III trial for treatment-resistant hypertension is planned for the first half of 2023. 

Under the agreement, AstraZeneca will initiate a tender offer to acquire all of CinCor’s outstanding shares for $26 per share in cash at closing, plus a non-tradable contingent value right of $10 per share in cash payable upon a specified regulatory submission of a baxdrostat product. The upfront cash portion of the consideration represents a transaction value of approximately $1.3 billion. Combined, the upfront and maximum potential contingent value payments represent, if achieved, a transaction value of approximately $1.8 billion. As part of the transaction, AstraZeneca will acquire the cash and marketable securities on CinCor’s balance sheet, which totaled approximately $522 million as of September 30, 2022. The acquisition is expected to close in the first quarter of 2023. 

Source: AstraZeneca