Novo Holdings, the controlling shareholder of Danish drugmaker Novo Nordisk, announced Wednesday that it has completed its $16.5 billion acquisition of Catalent.
The buyout takes private Catalent, one of the world’s largest contract development and manufacturing organizations. Catalent CEO Alessandro Maselli will remain at the helm.
“As a private company with Novo Holdings’ partnership and support, we are well-positioned to deliver unparalleled outcomes for our customers and the patients they serve, and ultimately create value for our stakeholders,” Maselli said in a statement.
In a separate but related transaction, Novo Nordisk on Wednesday announced it completed its acquisition of three Catalent fill-finish sites from Novo Holdings for $11 billion. Located in Italy, Belgium and Indiana, the sites will help boost the production of Novo Nordisk’s wildly popular blockbuster GLP-1 medications Ozempic and Wegovy.
“The three sites will expand our manufacturing capacity at scale and speed, while complementing our ongoing significant internal supply chain expansions,” Novo Nordisk CEO Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen said in a statement.
However, Lilly CEO Dave Ricks and Roche CEO Thomas Schinecker both recently voiced their respective opposition to the Novo-Catalent deal, as well Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and separately a coalition of unions, consumer organizations and public interest groups.
Despite concerns from stakeholders, Novo Holdings and Catalent on Saturday announced that they had fulfilled all regulatory closing conditions for the transaction, clearing the way for their deal to go through.