Novartis's 8.7 billion bet
Last year Novartis (NVS) made waves by acquiring the gene therapy company AveXis for an astounding 8.7 billion dollars, setting in motion a rush of additional buyouts in this therapeutic space including Spark Therapeutics (4.8 billion) and Nightstar Therapeutics (800 million). This earth-shattering price tag was likely for AxeXis's spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) AAV gene therapy asset AVXS-101 (which will be marketed by Novartis under the Zolgensma name). The excitement around Zolgensma was mainly predicted on a small, 15 patient Phase 1 trial (called START) which