Updated: Novartis close to acquiring Cytokinetics after biotech’s PhIII heart disease win — WSJ

No­var­tis is in dis­cus­sions to buy Cy­to­ki­net­ics, the Wall Street Jour­nal re­port­ed Mon­day, send­ing the biotech’s stock $CYTK soar­ing near­ly 15%.

The deal could be sealed be­fore the end of the week, per WSJ. No­var­tis de­clined to com­ment.

Mon­day’s re­port comes af­ter Cy­to­ki­net­ics re­leased pos­i­tive Phase III da­ta for a heart dis­ease pro­gram, known as afi­camten, set­ting up a po­ten­tial show­down with Bris­tol My­ers Squibb’s Camzyos and spark­ing M&A spec­u­la­tion.

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