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Key Takeaways
- Novo Nordisk AS on Monday announced a deal to acquire German pharmaceutical company Cardior for up to $1.11 billion.
- The maker of weight-loss drug Wegovy noted one drug as being especially important in the acquisition, a heart failure medication currently in clinical trials.
- So far this year, the Danish drugmaker has invested in increasing its production capacity, and received positive early results on another weight-loss drug.
Novo Nordisk AS (NVO), maker of the weight-loss drug Wegovy, is set to acquire Cardior Pharmaceuticals, a German drug company, in a deal for up to 1.025 billion euros ($1.11 billion).
The deal includes a compound Cardior currently has in Phase 2 of clinical development for heart failure, identified as CDR132L, as Novo Nordisk works to increase its footprint in the cardiovascular medicine industry, the companies announced Monday.
“By welcoming Cardior as a part of Novo Nordisk, we will strengthen our pipeline of projects in cardiovascular disease where we already have ongoing programmes across all phases of clinical development,” said Martin Holst Lange, executive vice president for Development at Novo Nordisk.
“We have been impressed by the scientific work carried out by the Cardior team, especially on CDR132L, which has a distinctive mode of action and potential to become a first-in-class therapy designed to halt or partially reverse the course of disease for people living with heart failure,” Holst Lange said in a press release.
Novo Nordisk plans to start a second Phase 2 clinical trial for the drug, and said the acquisition should be finalized in the second quarter of 2024.
The Denmark-based drugmaker has seen its shares and revenue grow significantly since its weight-loss drug Wegovy received Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval in June 2021, and demand has soared in the last year.
So far this year, the company has made investments in increasing its production capacity, and has received promising early results with another weight-loss drug, with a Phase 2 study planned to begin later this year.
Wegovy has also shown positive effects for things like reducing risk of heart attacks, and Novo Nordisk in addition has announced other partnerships related to cardiovascular and cardiometabolic diseases.
Novo Nordisk American Depositary Receipts, which have surged nearly 70% in the last 12 months, were up 0.8% at $129.82 at around 1:05 p.m. ET Monday. The stock hit an all-time closing high of $135.92 earlier this month.