All regulatory closing conditions related to Novo Holdings’ $16.5 billion acquisition of U.S. contract drug maker Catalent have been fulfilled, the companies announced on Saturday. The transaction is expected to be completed in the coming days. Novo Holdings agreed to buy Catalent in February to boost production of the popular weight-loss drug Wegovy.
As part of the deal, Novo Holdings will sell three of Catalent’s factories, which fill injection pens in sterile conditions in Italy, Belgium, and the United States, to Novo Nordisk for $11 billion. Novo Holdings is the controlling shareholder of Danish drugmaker Novo Nordisk, which manufactures the blockbuster GLP-1 injectable weight-loss drug Wegovy.
The acquisition is expected to have a mid-single-digit negative impact on Novo Nordisk’s operating profit growth in 2025, and the company will not initiate a share buyback program in 2025. The deal received EU antitrust approval in December, with the European Commission stating that the proposed merger would not raise competition concerns in the European Economic Area.
Several U.S. consumer groups and two large labor unions had urged the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in October to block the deal. U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren also called on the FTC to scrutinize the $16.5 billion deal. The FTC had sought more information on Novo’s acquisition of Catalent in May, but there has been no update since then.