Novartis / Excellergy

Novartis Finance Corporation (Novartis Finance), via its wholly-owned subsidiary Elba Merger Sub, Inc., proposes to acquire 100% of the issued and outstanding capital stock of Excellergy, Inc. (Excellergy) (the Acquisition).

Novartis Finance is a subsidiary of Novartis AG (collectively, Novartis). Novartis is a global medicines company headquartered in Basel, Switzerland. Novartis is engaged in the research, development, manufacturing, distribution, commercialisation and sale of medicines, with a focus on the following therapeutic areas: cardiovascular, renal and metabolic; immunology; neuroscience; oncology; and established brands.

In Australia, Novartis supplies a range of medicines to customers, including treatments for chronic spontaneous urticaria (CSU) such as Xolair, and has a further CSU medicine under evaluation by the Therapeutic Goods Administration.

Excellergy is a private biotechnology company based on Palo Alto, California, United States. Excellergy is developing next-generation anti‑immunoglobulin E (anti‑IgE) therapies for the treatment of IgE-driven allergic diseases, where the body produces specific IgE antibodies in response to substances that are generally harmless (allergens), resulting in allergic symptoms and inflammation. This includes Excellergy's lead asset, Exl-111, a half-life extended, high-affinity anti-IgE antibody, which is currently in Phase 1 clinical evaluation.

Excellergy's operations are limited to the United States and.it has not generated any revenue from sales of product in Australia (or anywhere else) to date. Excellergy's connection with Australia arises from the registration of trademarks and the establishment of an Australian subsidiary for the purpose of conducting clinical trials.