Novartis has entered an agreement to buy AveXis Inc., a gene therapy company, for $8.7 billion dollars as part of its neuroscience strategy.

The deal follows the recent sale of Novartis’s stake in its consumer health-care joint venture to GlaxoSmithKline PLC (GSK.LN) for $13 billion. 

Novartis will pay $218 a share of AveXis in cash, an 88% premium to its closing price on April 6, and intends to fund the acquisition with available cash and short-term borrowing.

Paul Hudson, chief executive officer of Novartis Pharmaceuticals, said, “Bringing AveXis on board would support both our ambition to be a leader in neurodegenerative diseases and our Neuroscience franchise priorities to strengthen our position in devastating pediatric neurological diseases such as SMA.”

AveXis is a gene-therapy company conducting several clinical studies for the treatment of spinal muscular atrophy, or SMA, an inherited neurodegenerative disease caused by a defect in a single gene. Their gene therapy candidate AVXS-101 has the potential to be the first one-time gene replacement therapy for SMA according to Novartis, and it currently has orphan drug designation from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of SMA.

The transaction was unanimously approved by the boards of the two companies, Novartis said, and the deal is expected to close in mid-2018.