What happened Shares of Dicerna Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: DRNA), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, are exploding higher today in response to a buyout offer from Novo Nordisk (NYSE: NVO). Dicerna stock was up 78.6% as of 11 a.m. ET on Thursday. So what Today, Novo Nordisk agreed to acquire all of Dicerna's outstanding shares for $38.25 each. That's a premium of 80% above the stock's price after the market closed yesterday. Image source: Getty Images. Novo Nordisk's juicy buyout offer values Dicerna Pharmaceuticals at $3.3 billion. At the moment, Dicerna's pipeline has a handful of midstage candidates and one in late-stage trials called nedosiran. This is a candidate wholly owned by Dicerna that is under development for the treatment of a rare metabolic disorder called primary hyperoxaluria (PH). Patients with PH produce too much oxalate, which binds with calcium to form severe kidney stones. Nedosiran uses a small strand of RNA that interferes with the production of lactate dehydrogenase A, which in turn lowers oxalate levels. Last November, the Food and Drug Administration approved Oxlumo, the first RNA interference drug for the treatment of PH. Now what Oxlumo, from Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, lowers oxalate by interfering with the production of a different enzyme called hydroxyacid oxidase 1. With a different mechanism of action, there's a good chance that nedosiran can find a niche among PH patients who don't respond well to initial treatment with Alnylam's drug. Dicerna Pharmaceuticals expects the transaction to close before the end of the year. This should be a reliable timeline. Regulators are generally uninterested in preventing the buyout of clinical-stage biotechnology companies. 10 stocks we like better than Dicerna PharmaceuticalsWhen our award-winning analyst team has a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the newsletter they have run for over a decade, Motley Fool Stock Advisor, has tripled the market.* They just revealed what they believe are the ten best stocks for investors to buy right now... and Dicerna Pharmaceuticals wasn't one of them! That's right -- they think these 10 stocks are even better buys. See the 10 stocks *Stock Advisor returns as of November 10, 2021 Cory Renauer has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Alnylam Pharmaceuticals and Novo Nordisk. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.Source