Novartis AG is considering a deal for radiopharmaceutical company Advanced Accelerator Applications SA (AAA), as the giant Swiss drugmaker seeks acquisitions to boost growth, people familiar with the matter said.
Novartis has approached AAA, as the company is known, about a deal and held talks, the people said, asking not to be identified because the deliberations are private.
AAA could also attract interest from other drugmakers, the people said.
No deal has been reached and talks may fall apart, the people said.
AAA’s US-listed shares rose as much as 17.6 percent to US$70.30 in after-hours trading. They have more than doubled this year through Wednesday’s close in New York, valuing the company at about US$2.6 billion.
Novartis shares have gained 11 percent in Switzerland year-to-date.
Representatives for Novartis and AAA declined to comment.
AAA makes radiopharmaceuticals, or radioactive drugs, used to diagnose and treat diseases, such as cancer. Italian academics founded the company in 2002 as a spinoff of the European Organization for Nuclear Research, or CERN. AAA is based in Saint-Genis-Pouilly, a French town just outside Geneva.
The company counts 21 production and research and development sites. It employs more than 530 people in 13 countries.
Novartis, which is hunting for assets to bolster its businesses in areas from cancer to cardiovascular disease, this month announced the surprise departure of CEO Joseph Jimenez after eight years at the helm of Europe’s largest drugmaker, handing off the challenge of selling underperforming assets and developing new medicines to Vasant Narasimhan, a Harvard-trained doctor.
Novartis has announced more than SU$30 billion in deals over the past four years, the largest being its 2015 acquisition of GlaxoSmithKline PLC’s oncology portfolio for as much as US$16 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Jimenez has previously said the company is focusing on potential acquisitions of US$2 billion to US$5 billion.
The company has hired Keren Haruvi Snir from Teva Pharmaceutical Industries as its head of mergers and acquisitions, people familiar with the matter said.
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