The investment arm of the Novo Nordisk Foundation is acquiring contract development and manufacturing organization Catalent to help meet high demand for Ozempic and Wegovy.
Pictured: Wall sign of the Novo Nordisk Foundation and Novo Holdings in Denmark/iStock, CR
Contract development and manufacturing organization Catalent announced on Monday that it has entered into a $16.5-billion, all-cash merger agreement with Novo Holdings, the investment arm of the Novo Nordisk Foundation.
Under the terms of the acquisition, Novo Holdings will purchase all outstanding Catalent shares for $63.50 apiece, which represents a 16.5% premium to the CDMO’s closing price on Friday. Catalent’s board has unanimously agreed that the deal with Novo Holdings “delivers a premium and certain cash value” and “is in the best interest” of the company while recommending that Catalent stockholders vote in favor of the merger.
Catalent’s stock price shot up 13% in premarket trading Monday in response to the news of the deal, according to Seeking Alpha.
The companies expect to close the transaction toward the end of 2024, subject to regulatory and anti-trust clearance, the approval of Catalent’s stockholders and other customary closing conditions.
Novo Holdings also announced on Monday that it will sell three of Catalent’s fill-finish sites to its pharmaceuticals arm Novo Nordisk for an upfront payment of $11 billion, subject to certain adjustments for transaction expenses and changes in net debt items until the completion of the acquisition.
Novo Nordisk expects to close its purchase of the fill-finish sites “as soon as possible” after Novo Holdings and Catalent complete their deal. Novo will assume and honor all standing customer obligations of the three facilities after the acquisition.
According to Novo Nordisk’s announcement, the three fill-finish sites—which employ more than 3,000 staff across its facilities in Belgium, Italy and the U.S.—are “specialized in the sterile filling of drugs” and will help the pharma expand its current manufacturing capacity, particularly for its diabetes and obesity portfolio led by its top-selling semaglutide products Ozempic and Wegovy, respectively.
Novo Nordisk CEO Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen said that the company is “very pleased” with the purchase, which “complements the significant investments we are already doing in active pharmaceutical ingredients facilities.”
The company previously announced a $6 billion investment to bump up its manufacturing capacity in Denmark in an earlier effort to meet the market’s high demand for its semaglutide line of products. First announced in November 2023, the investment plan included an initial $3.6 billion tranche last year, with the remaining amount doled out over the next six years.
Semaglutide, which Novo Nordisk markets as Ozempic for type 2 diabetes and Wegovy for weight management, has been in short supply in recent months. This gap has led to the proliferation of counterfeit and compounded products, which have elicited public warnings from the FDA and the World Health Organization.
Tristan Manalac is an independent science writer based in Metro Manila, Philippines. Reach out to him on LinkedIn or email him at tristan@tristanmanalac.com or tristan.manalac@biospace.com.
