The logos of Danish pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk, blockbuster diabetes and weight loss treatments Ozempic and Wegovy are visible outside the building as Novo Nordisk presents its annual report in Bagvaerd, Denmark, February 5, 2025.
Mads Klaus Rasmussen | Afp | getty images
Mesera said on tuesday novo nordiskNew bid for obesity biotech “Better” than the revised proposal. from PfizerThe heated battle over startups between two pharmaceutical giants is escalating.
Novo Nordisk’s new proposal values Metsera at up to $86.20 per share, or about $10 billion in total. Metsera said in its announcement that this amount represents a premium of approximately 159% to the closing price on September 19, the last trading day before announcing the proposed acquisition of Pfizer.
Meanwhile, Pfizer’s new proposal values Mesera at up to $70 per share, or about $8.1 billion in total.
Under the terms of Pfizer’s original agreement to acquire Mesera, the drugmaker will have two business days to negotiate adjustments to its offer. If Metsera’s board of directors believes that Novo Nordisk’s offer is still better than Pfizer’s offer after that period, Metsera would be entitled to terminate the existing merger agreement, according to the press release.
“Novo Nordisk’s offer is fantastic, and we believe it cannot be a better offer under the terms of the merger agreement with Messera because it violates antitrust laws and carries a high risk of never being completed,” Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said on Tuesday’s third-quarter earnings call.
In a statement on Tuesday, Novo Nordisk confirmed the new bid and said it would maximize the potential of Metsera’s portfolio of complementary drugs. Novo Nordisk reiterated that the proposal complies with all applicable laws and is “in the best interest of Metsera’s shareholders as well as the patients who will benefit from our commitment to innovation.”
The new bid comes a day after Pfizer filed a second lawsuit against Novo Nordisk and Metsera, alleging that the company’s attempts to outbid Pfizer to acquire the biotech company were anticompetitive.
The clash reflects the changing landscape in the blockbuster weight-loss and diabetes drug space, with veteran Novo Nordisk now chasing rival Eli Lilly and other companies such as Pfizer entering the fray.
Metsera, founded in 2022, offers a pipeline of oral and injectable drugs with a variety of targets, including drugs targeting GLP-1 and another gut hormone called amylin. Both are being studied as potential once-monthly treatments, meaning they are taken less frequently than the weekly injections available on the market.
For Pfizer, Metsera’s pipeline could be the company’s golden ticket into the space after struggling to bring its own obesity products to market over the past few years. Novo Nordisk helped establish the market, but is losing market share. ellie lily And they are developing cheap copycat products and struggling to impress investors with their drug pipelines.
Pfizer said in September it would acquire Mesera for $4.9 billion, with future payments of up to $7.3 billion.
But Novo Nordisk launched a takeover bid on Thursday that would value the biotech at about $6 billion, or up to $9 billion, giving Pfizer a four-business-day deadline to renegotiate its offer.
