US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer has emerged as the winner of the bidding war with rival Novo Nordisk for US obesity specialist Metsera.
Pfizer is entering the lucrative market for weight loss products with the takeover, which costs up to ten billion US dollars (8.6 billion euros); This is intended to help compensate for the increasingly sluggish business with Covid drugs. If successful, Novo Nordisk would have kept a rival at bay and strengthened itself in competition with Eli Lilly.
Pfizer and Novo Nordisk had trumped each other, but each ended up offering up to $86.25 per share. Metsera now decided in favor of Pfizer’s offer and also referred to US antitrust regulators’ concerns about the purchase by Novo Nordisk.
The Danes themselves do not see any competition law problems, but announced at the weekend that they would no longer increase their offer. They justified this with financial discipline.
The total represents a premium of about 160 percent over the $33.32 that Metsera cost in September, before the original deal with Pfizer was announced. Specifically, an initial payment of $65.60 in cash is planned. An additional up to $20.65 can be added as goals are achieved.
The deal involves the next generation of anti-obesity drugs – a market that experts predict will reach $100 billion by 2030. The new generation of these drugs should have at least the same effectiveness as current medications, but could be injected less frequently or cause fewer side effects such as nausea and vomiting. Metsera has several drugs in early to mid-stage development.
Currently, the market for weight loss products is basically dominated by Eli Lilly with Zepbound and Novo Nordisk with Wegovy. The hype surrounding such drugs drove the Novo Nordisk price up by almost 400 percent to 1,033 crowns from the end of 2020 to mid-2024. The Danes were the most valuable company in the European Stoxx Europe 50 index.
However, those times are over. The price has fallen by more than 70 percent since the record high because business is weak. Just a few days ago, the company had to lower its outlook for 2025 again. The original pioneer in the field of weight reducers has been struggling with increasing competition from the US manufacturer Lilly for some time. In the important US market, cheap copies made by pharmacies are also making life difficult for the Danes.
/mis
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