AstraZeneca has completed its acquisition of CinCor Pharma, a Waltham, Massachusetts-based clinical-stage bio/pharmaceutical company, in a $1.8-billion deal ($1.3 billion upfront plus potential payments of contingent value rights). The deal was announced in January 2023. 

CinCor is focused on developing drugs for resistant and uncontrolled hypertension as well as chronic kidney disease. Its 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.  

The acquisition was completed through a tender offer to purchase all outstanding shares of CinCor for approximately $1.3 billion upfront. As part of the transaction, AstraZeneca acquired the cash and marketable securities on CinCor’s balance sheet, which totaled approximately $500 million at closing, excluding transaction-related expenses. At closing, CinCor shareholders also received a non-tradable contingent value right, payable upon a specified regulatory submission of a baxdrostat product. Combined, the upfront and contingent value payments represent, if achieved, a transaction value of approximately $1.8 billion.  

Source: AstraZeneca