Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis has agreed to buy biotechnology company Avidity Biosciences for about $12 billion, the company said Sunday.

Novartis will pay Avidity shareholders $72 a share in cash, a premium of 46% to the company’s Friday closing price.

The deal is expected to close in the first half of 2026, after Avidity spins out parts of its business, including its early-stage precision cardiology programs, the company said in a statement.

“The Avidity team has built robust programs with industry-leading delivery of RNA therapeutics to muscle tissue,” Novartis CEO Vas Narasimhan said in the statement. “We look forward to developing these programs to meaningfully change the trajectory of diseases for patients.”

Novartis has raised the forecast for its sales compound annual growth rate between 2024 and 2029 to 6% from 5% as a result of the acquisition.

Bloomberg News first reported the companies were nearing a deal, citing a person familiar with the matter. Novartis and Avidity didn’t immediately respond to CNBC’s requests for comment.

Avidity specializes in developing an innovative class of ribonucleic acid (RNA) therapeutics called antibody oligonucleotide conjugates. RNA-based therapeutics are a relatively new class of medications that work by altering how genes are expressed to treat or prevent diseases.

The Avidity deal comes as Novartis ramps up its research and development division. The company earlier this year pledged to invest $23 billion to build out its U.S.-based infrastructure, which includes plans to construct a second R&D hub in San Diego.

The pharmaceutical giant has also struck two key deals with Anthos Therapeutics and Regulus Therapeutics this year to boost its development and manufacturing of cardiovascular and kidney disease drugs.

Avidity shares closed at $49.15 on Friday. The stock, which has a market capitalization of roughly $7.2 billion, is up nearly 70% since the beginning of the year. Novartis shares closed at $130.36 on Friday.